It Should Have Been a Normal Sunday
by UuenTheYueRyuu
Summary: But, like many things that dare defy him in his life, that is not the case—a certain herbivore and his flock decided to intrude his "bath" at the onsen near his home. And, to top it all off, Hibari is not even wearing anything that might conceal his naked glory! Disclaimer: I don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn. Yaoi: 2718 (in that order). Much, much deeper plot than what it seems.
1. Sunday Ruined

His eyelids snapped open automatically at 3:45 A.M.—almost robotically—as though an internal clock was implanted in his brain since birth. So, he knew it was the aforementioned time without glancing at the clock displaying an indenture that told of a painful day of punishment for blaring too cacophonously for its master's taste, rendering it useless of its only purpose in the short life it lived. He lazily tangled his fingers through the messy mop of raven locks spread out on the pillow beckoning him to wrap his consciousness in shadows; he muffled the yawn that rippled from his mouth with the back of his other hand and sat up slowly, mentally cringing at the pops and cracks of his bones and muscles—he could swear biting too many herbivores to death the previous day was slowly extracting his youth. But Hibari Kyouya, Namimori's feared Head Prefect of the Disciplinary Committee of practically every facility one could conjure in a town—hospitals and police headquarters were no exceptions; heck, he was the discipline and order of every nook and cranny stuffed into Namimori.

A ruffle of yellow under his covers caught his attention, and, tilting his head to stare at the fluff of feathers, a small smile graced his usually stony and admittedly handsome features (though, one would have a death wish if he or she would ever approach him to woo him for the latter reason). "Little one," he called softly, "are you hungry?"

Black beads lustered at the sight of Hibari cheerfully under the sliver of moonlight filtering through the apertures left by the drawn closed curtains. It hopped about on the covers, flapping its wings as it did so, and chirped in that high-pitched tone a mantra of "hungry".

He chuckled lowly while slipping out of the confines of his bed, tucking his bare feet in slippers as equally dark as his nightshirt and shorts that reached just above his knees. He sauntered over to a drawer at the far corner of the grand room and pried open the top drawer to reveal several varieties of seeds. He hummed thoughtfully as he prodded around with his finger to inspect the condition of the seeds. "Come pick what you want."

The bird flew over to the drawer and perched itself on an opened bag of sunflower seeds; nestling itself more down so the seeds cuddled around it, the bird began to peck at and consume the seeds of the bag in front of the one it was in.

Muffling another yawn, Hibari ordered before sliding the _shoji_ door leading into the hallway open, "Don't spill anything." But Hibari knew when he returned to his room he will find a layer of seeds scattered upon the floor and his companion tucked under the covers of his still-unmade bed and taking its first of its many naps throughout the day. _As usual_.

The footsteps he took towards the bright light emitting from another section of his home was accompanied by the subtle sounds of chatter, the bubbling of overheated oil and water, and the constant clatter of metal and ceramic. He hid the second, rare smile of the day—_Trust Tetsu and the others to be up and about preparing breakfast._

As he suspected, not less than twenty men—all clad in white _chemise homme_ with black dress pants and sporting neatly combed pompadours he was certain took hours to create—were either setting up the long table rivaling the dining tables found in the Louvre Museum in Paris, cutting multiple assortments of vegetables, chopping the meat Hibari identified as beef by the mere scent of its blood (for the skylark really was that much of a meat-fanatic), washing or placing back into place the dishes, or frying whatever meal was to be served in the near future. Yet, right when he stepped a foot into the kitchen, all of them halted their individual task to bow down to the waist in his direction, chorusing simultaneously, "Beauteous morrow, Kyou-san."

Today, it seemed, was another of those extremely rare days he deemed it passable to reply with more than just a short hum or grunt. "Beauteous morrow, indeed." He turned his body to the one he identified immediately as Kusakabe Tetsuya by the straw of grass that was perpetually located hanging from said person's mouth, ignoring the overly gleeful glittery of his subordinates' eyes. "What's the occasion?"

Kusakabe smiled fondly and informed with slight hesitation, "Today is the commencement of the Lantern Festival."

A random DC member nudged Kusakabe on the ribs with his elbow, his eyes straining to transmit through some sort of telepathy an important section of information Kusakabe was restraining. After futilely attempting telepathic communication—a concept Hibari has only known to have been mastered by a certain tropical fruit—he leaned up (for the young man was a head shorter than Kusakabe) to whisper, "Tetsu-senpai, just tell Kyou-san before he like, you know, _bites you to death_."

This, of course, like nothing ever does, did not manage to escape from Hibari's keen hearing-range; the dangerous sharpening of his azure silver gaze was the telltale sign of that fact. "And what, pray tell, is it you wish to inform?" Of course, the threat of a spikes-released tonfa being shoved down a throat was already preexistent should the comma—err…question not be answered.

The random member squeaked and hid behind the towering form of another member standing a foot away.

Kusakabe coughed onto his hand awkwardly. "I was going to wait until after breakfast was served to tell you of this, Kyou-san, but I guess it can't be helped." He straightened his position, hands at his sides like a soldier would stand before his general, the rest of the members mimicking his movements, he announced, "From the random selection of a citizen for the one to lead the procession of _Namimori no Bon Odori_, the one bestowed for this honourable task is no one other than our own precious _Bocchan_ and Head Prefect of the Disciplinary Committee—" Here, he kneels gracefully upon one knee with his right hand over his heart and bows his head respectfully, followed by the same actions of his fellow men.

"—Hibari Kyouya-sama," they chorused.

The roseate colouring to his cheeks, Hibari analyzed, was inevitable—this kind of attention always managed to shatter his mask of indifference. He crossed his arms over his chest and peered anywhere but at the many men kneeled before him as though he was a king and they the knights. _Geez…_and, while sauntering over to the far end of the table to take his respective place in this household to drink the steaming cup of Green Tea prepared for him alone that was situated there, his subordinates rose to make way for him, grins as bright as the grin that Nami Middle School's baseball idol was famous for and laughing and chuckling to themselves as they draped their arms leisurely over their shoulders.

"We'll support you the entire way, Kyou-san!"

Several nods followed that statement. "All the way," someone added.

"Entirely."

A fist rose into the air. "Throughout all three days!"

"Ah-ah," another commented, "you make it sound like it'll last a month…"

They broke out laughing vigorously and returned to their previous duties in the kitchen and dining room.

The hue upon his cheeks only seemed to darken, and, yet again, he found himself thanking the low lighting at the back of the room. Curling slender fingers around the warm cup and placing a hand under the base to support it, Hibari took a sip of his tea. _Yes_, he told himself, _today is definitely a Sunday._

If one was to peer closer at his features, one would have found the third rare smile of the day upon his lips.

…

After eating breakfast with the DC members, what followed in his schedule was his lengthy bath that mainly consisted of relaxing in the _onsen_ the size of a lagune—because, in actuality, it was one—in his backyard, which was with no exaggeration several mountains wide. Before he wandered the one-mile trip to this treat, he would make sure the coast is clear ('cause Hibari Kyouya is simply _that_ selfish) and that he has his bathing utensils and all of his articles of clothing are draped neatly over one of his arms. Once he was sure he has what he needed, he perused his surrounding one last time and set off on his little, secret trip to the _onsen_.

His gait was slower than his colloquial strides, for he enjoys the crunch of snow under every step he takes, the cool air that pleasingly burns his lungs, and the wind that nips at his skin ever so slowly and ruffles his obsidian locks. What he loves best, though, are the puffs of ghosts his breath invokes and the thrill of being alone at half past four in a mostly unexplored forest that creaks when particularly strong breezes whisper over the branches bereft foliage of trees reaching out for the starry night—it was like walking through the gates of a frozen Hell.

The forest begun to dissipate as he neared his destination, and the air begun to take on a warm yet dry humidity, mist engulfing his form the further he went until he metamorphosed into one of those clouds of water. He searches for boulder he can set his clothing on instead of peeping Toms and unceremoniously dumps his possessions when he finds one with a particularly flat surface. Eager to dip in the hot pool, he slips out of his night- and under-garments in one go with wont ease. In his naked glory, he pivots on his heels and sprints to the edge of an abrupt drop over fifteen feet high from the water's surface below. He claps his hands over his head to form an "A" as he vaults when he reaches the rough edge of the relatively tiny cliff and bends halfway towards his waist to slowly straighten his position the closer he was to the surface.

It was a perfect dive—the only sign he plunged into the water were the ripples of where he momentarily disturbed the water's surface. He stayed a few feet under the surface for as long as he could hold his breath, swimming to the opposite edge of the lagune where he knew a cascade poured its delicious liquids.

He resurfaced with a needy gasp of air, tilting his head back so his bangs would not hinder his sight. Nevertheless, the water that fell upon his head from above returned them to their original style, and he huffed. Annoyed at the water, he pushed himself a foot away from the cascade and looked up, glaring at the downwards flow of the water that even from this distance continued to splatter him sprinkles of water. That's when he heard it.

It was a squeak of a effeminate voice, one he would have thought to belong to a woman had he not recognized it as one that was owned by no one other than the brunet herbivore named Sawada Tsunayoshi. _Talk about ruining a perfectly normal morning…_

"R-Reborn," he heard Sawada complain to the Hibari identified better as "the Baby" from not too far away from him (the heavy mist of the hot spring was blocking his vision), "t-there's something in there; I'm not going in!"

The second voice—a high pitched one that could only belong to an infant—clicked its tongue exasperatedly. "Dame-Tsuna, sharks don't live in hot springs. Now, go in on your own, or I will force you; Yamamoto and Gokudera are waiting for you."

A third voice laughed. "Don't worry, Tsuna. I'll bring my bat and _bashoomph_ it."

Hibari most certainly does not want to know what in the world "bashoomph" is supposed to mean or signify.

"Shut up, Baseball-Idiot," a fourth voice interjected, "or I'll use my dynamite to make _you_ go _kaboom_." The voice suddenly turned cheery. "Don't worry, Tenth. I'll protect you!"

Sawada laughed uneasily, and Hibari could hear him take small, hesitant steps towards his location—_probably backing away from the other herbivores_.

Hibari, just realizing something crucial, peered down at himself, and, through the crystalline water, he could see the problem formulating: he was in the water directly below the Sawada herbivore and his herbivorous, loud flock along with that questionably carnivorous baby (Hibari has never engaged in a serious fight with him)…wearing absolutely _nada_.

_Crap_. He stealthily went around the cascade to hide in the recess behind it, hoping he won't be spotted even if the herbivores eventually decide to climb into the water. He sighed, his eyebrows knitting together to express his aggravation. _It can't get worse than this…no, considering how accident-prone that herbivore is, it _will_ get worse_.

Just as he suspected, apparently, Sawada had taken one-too-many steps behind, the rock that was unable to support his weight crumbled, and, since Sawada clearly has no sense of balance from what Hibari had witnessed before, he fell backwards as he let out another of those squeaks.

"Ah, Tsuna, careful!"

"Tenth!"

…and Sawada's pets simply had to attach to him while he flailed his arms and dropped ten-plus feet into steaming water.

_Lovely._

Tsuna was the first to resurface, eyes wide in shock as he gasped and coughed. Naturally and almost instinctively, he swiveled his head from side to side in search for his friends. He sighed in relief shortly after when Yamamoto and Gokudera finally resurfaced, the first laughing and the latter frowning. He awkwardly swam closer to his friends. "Ah, I'm sorry you two. Are you guys alright?"

Yamamoto scratched the back of his head, laughing still. "Well, we were going to jump in either way, so adding more of the extra kashriploo only adds more fun to this."

_There he goes again with his weird ways of explaining things…_Tsuna grimly thought.

"Don't worry, Tenth; I'll protect you!"

_Déjà vu or what…_

Tsuna awkwardly laughed again. "Right…" He turned around slowly to wonder over to the cascade. His eyes widened, and Hibari cursed under his breath. He hollered loud enough for all of Namimori to hear, "Ahh! Hi-Hibari-san!"


	2. Demonic Pineapples & Romeo and Kyou-san

Warnings:

Perverted Pineapples, F-bombs (courtesy of birds and octopi), _Romeo and Kyou-san_, and possible grammar and spelling mistakes

_*"Five-clawed dragon"- _five-clawed dragons depict royalty

…

"Ahh! Hi-Hibari-san! W-wh-what are you doing here?"

What Hibari wanted to retort is "What does it look like?" yet he bit down on his tongue to smooth its sarcastic sharpness and hissed instead, "Out of my premises _or else_, herbivores."

Tsuna pried his trembling mouth open to ask for Hibari to enlighten him on what the latter meant by "my premises" as calmly as humanly possible (in terms of Tsuna-standards, at least) while a hole was being drilled into his forehead by the mere intensity of Hibari's stare that somehow managed to perforate through the cascade, and Tsuna had to wonder how in the world he knew it was the skylark when the cascade was doing a wonderful job of veiling the skylark; but the voice of his brutally Spartan tutor echoed from above and through the heavy mist, impeding him from stating his query—Tsuna knew should he interrupt his omni-anything tutor he would be pushing his precious life that is already constantly on the verge of entering Hades' realm to the piths of Hell.

"Deal with it, Hibari," Reborn said nonchalantly. "This concerns the festival that will take place in a few days' time."

No one, of course, bothered to point out to Reborn the last part did not explain why they had to discuss a festival in a hot spring almost five hours past midnight.

"Why should I deal with these herbivores? They are crowding." A blur of distorted black were the only indications he had that told Reborn had jumped down from above to land safely on Sawada's unruly mess the latter called hair, and he used the temporal distraction to shift closer to the wall of rock helping to obnubilate by casting a shadow over his…_state_.

"Unless you want the _Bon Odori_ to be ruined by my student and his guardians, I suggest you cooperate." Though, the suggestion seemed more a threat when a gun was cocked and aimed at Hibari's forehead. "Besides, it's the duty of the leader of the dance to prepare the choreography and make sure everyone is following orders and collaborating."

Tsuna and Gokudera eyes widened comically. "T-the bastard is the one leading?" Gokudera asked while pointing a finger enveloped with a ring at Hibari.

A short of hum of assertion was the response.

Furrowing his brow, Tsuna scolded, "Why didn't you tell us about this, Reborn? We deserve to know, especially since we are part of the _Odori_."

Hibari desired to slam his head against the first surface he sees and drown in the water—his normal day was quickly deteriorating to the label of "Accursed Morning". _All I need is the Pineapple to waltz in for the sole purpose of molesting me._

As if he just jinxed himself, a chuckle laced in nothing but malice and amusement resonated throughout the Hibari heaven (which was proving to be turning into hell), and he groaned.

A damp head of blue locks slowly ascended several inches away from Gokudera from under the water as though the person the head belonged to was standing on a platform that was pushing him up. Two eyelids fluttered open to reveal dichromatic irises: one the hue of the azure ocean and the other of a vibrant ruby.

Gokudera, startled, crossed his arms over his chest as a means of protection and shifted in a matter of milliseconds towards Yamamoto, his back slamming against the latter's chest. "What the fuck?!"

"Greetings, young Vongola and his puppets, Arcobaleno, dear Skylark."

"Mu-Mukuro, what brings you here?"

Yamamoto, oblivious to the murderous intent brewing behind the cascade and the uncomfortable atmosphere around his other two companions, laughed, ignoring the disturbing name placed upon him. "What's up?"

"I was planning on visiting _Kyouya_." Mukuro purposefully drawled out Hibari's name, knowing it would serve to aggravate said person greatly.

Predictably, Hibari narrowed his gaze, the dark cloud brewing about his shoulders intensifying its ominous presence. "Don't call me that."

The entertainment gained from the reaction danced in Mukuro's eyes. "Ah, come now, don't say that." Without warning, he ducked under the water to swim under the cascade and reappeared a few-feet distance from Hibari.

His eyes widened for a fraction of a second, and, alarmed at the proximity, he used the wall of rock to propel himself away with a hand from the illusionist. "Stay away, herbivore." His voice faltered slightly, almost unperceptively, but Mukuro, always the one to notice the tiniest details, definitely heard it.

The perpetual smirk imbedded in his features curled Mukuro's lips further. He tapped his bottom lip with his pinky as his lips parted to show pearly white teeth, making one wonder if perhaps Mukuro was a demon in a human's skin, for the latter's canines gave off a bloodthirsty, invisible scent. _Like a creature of the darkness…those putrid vampires_, assayed the unnecessary voice at the back of Hibari's mind. "_Oya_, _oya_, is this fear I sense?"

"Fuck off, Rokudou Mukuro." Hibari moved further away, but, to his horror, he was blocked by the curving end of the recess. _Crap._

He chuckled darkly. "My, and here I thought you were innocent to the world of Reproduction." He closed the distance between them and stealthily wrapped an arm around Hibari's slimmer waist, pressing their chests together. This time Hibari's eyes went as wide as plates, while Mukuro threaded his fingers through the clumped together, raven locks and tilted Hibari's head back so the latter's azure metal irises were staring directly into his own heterochromatic ones.

Tsuna clamped his hands over his ears. "Ahh! My ears!"

Ignoring the brunette, Mukuro continued to study the Head Prefect's features: lips plump and glazed tauntingly seductively in a thin layer of water; eyelashes long, dark, and curled to perfection; skin as fair as a porcelain doll and as soft and smooth as silky cotton; and irises dusted in the hues of sunken silver lustering within the expanse of a storm-stricken Arabian Sea. _If not for his voice, I would have no problem believing this canary is a woman._ He unconsciously licked his lips at the feel of Hibari pressed neatly against his bare torso, his hand around the skylark's waist inching lower and lower…

Finally snapping out of his shock, Hibari narrowed his eyes to a glare and ground his teeth together; he curled his fingers into a fist and knocked it against Mukuro's jaw. Well, it should have hit had it not been for Mukuro catching his fist, which successfully forced the illusionist to unwrap his arm from around his waist and created distance between them.

"Feisty, aren't we?" The only sign to the displeasure of being disrupted in what he was about to do—whatever it was, Hibari was sure he _did not_ want to know—was a twitch of his slender eyebrow.

Hibari thrust his knee into Mukuro's abdomen as his response.

Mukuro doubled over, clutching an arm over the injured area, and coughed up blood that dribbled down from the corner of his mouth to his chin and then to blend with the water. _God, why the hell is this person so strong…?_

"Stop infecting my water with your germs and _fuck off_, _Pineapple_."

"About that," Reborn interjected, "Hibari, I called him here. We need his help."

Tsuna removed his hands from his ears and dishearteningly asked, "Who else did you invite? Dino-san? Byakuran? Xanxus?" _Dear gods, please, tell me it's not Byakuran or Xanxus…_

"Dino should be arriving shortly—"

_Phew…_

"—With Squalo, of course."

Tsuna threw his head back with a groan.

Yamamoto was Tsuna's syzygy: he smiled broadly at the thought of Squalo, his mind already formulating how he was going to go about showing off the new sword moves he developed recently. "This is going to be fun!"

Gokudera clicked his tongue. "My ass."

_For once I agree with Gokudera-kun_.

The apprehensiveness within Hibari only grew at this. He cursed for the umpteenth time that morning. That's when he decided to make a run for it—he could suck up his pride if it meant not being seen naked from head to toe by seven people. He perused his surroundings and found an opening to the right of Tsuna and left of Gokudera and Yamamoto. _There's enough of an opening for me to swim through_. With that thought set in mind, he inched closer to Mukuro (who was still moaning in pain and rubbing soothing circles on his abdomen adorned with a large, purple and black bruise), his hand never leaving the wall. He smirked at Mukuro and motioned with his chin at the bruise. "Think of it as a present, herbivore; it's turning the hues of your favourite colours."

Mukuro glowered at Hibari. "That was unnecessary, Skylark."

He huffed. "Every measure of defense is necessary with you." Then, not waiting to hear the retaliation, he dived into the water until he felt the bottom of the _onsen_ and kicked off the wall to propel himself forward—at the velocity he was going, he knew he had just beat his best swimming record. He vaguely heard the muffled shouts of Sawada and his flock after the Baby ordered something. _Probably telling them to catch me_.

He was right. Except, instead of humans going after him, they were bullets missing him by mere centimeters, but he was not going to let a gun deter him. So, he swam in a zigzag pattern, listening to the ripples of the water to discern his location. He reached a hand below him to scrape the ground, and, sure enough, several pebbles rolled into his grasp. Pointing his hand at a random direction, he snapped his wrist, and the pebble shot away from his hand like a missile. He strained his ears to listen for the faint, familiar sound of pebble-hitting-boulder. _Nothing_. He threw a second pebble at the opposite direction and, not far in length of time, the sound of the pebble bouncing off an uneven surface met his hearing. With a small trace of a smirk, he twisted his body to the right where he knew the pebble went, his arm extended in front of him so he would not smack his head against anything and possibly pass out (considering the speed he was swimming at, the latter possibility was highly plausible). Not five seconds later, his hand grasped the protruding edge of a rocky surface, and he used that to force himself out of the water and several feet into the freezing air.

"Roll, Cambio Forma Version X: Riccio di Nuvola." Mid-air, a black trench coat draped over his form and equally black tonfas were now in his grasp; just as gravity began to pull him back, a chain shot out from the tip of his tonfa and attached its spiked end on the edge of the cliff that coincidentally happened to be the one he initially vaulted off from. When the cliff's wall drew till a foot away from his face, he stepped on the wall, crouched, and released his foothold in an upwards motion. He landed safely at the summit of the cliff and sighed while standing up and retracting the chains to hide them back to who-knows-where. He pivoted on his heel to peer down at the water below, but the heavy mist clouded his vision. Satisfied that no one seemed to be following or shooting bullets at him, he walked to his belongings, picked them up, and swiveled around the boulder to head into the forest—he would have to dress elsewhere.

"Ah! Kyouya, is that you?"

Hibari nearly jolted out of his skin. _How the hell did I not hear him approaching? Or, even worse, has he been here the entire time?_ He went with the latter reason—not even a petal fluttering to the ground went unnoticed by him. Deciding it better to allow the mist to conceal his form than to throw a tonfa at his self-proclaimed tutor's face, he ran on his tiptoes into the forest, straying from the path he usually took. _If I get pneumonia again from this, I swear upon Namimori I will painfully and torturously bite those herbivores to death, especially that perverted pineapple._

…

"Che. He ran away."

"What the hell, Reborn?! What if you managed to shoot him?! We'd have all of the Disciplinary Committee down our throats!"

Reborn shrugged and tilted his fedora to cast a shadow over his face. "I'm a hitman."

Tsuna hung his head, a sense of defeat dominating him. "Ugh. What happened to my perfectly normal life…?"

Reborn whacked him up-side the head. "Stop sulking, Dame-Tsuna. Dino's here."

"Wha—?"

"Tsuna, move out of the way! I'm jumping in!" However, being the klutz that he is without the presence of his subordinates to keep him on guard, Dino managed to tangle his feet, trip over the edge, and slam face-first into the warm water…which was where Mukuro was painstakingly rubbing his stomach to wander some place where he could sit and rest.

"Voi! Are you an idiot?!"

The sun began to rise from its resting place behind the white hills and the distant tip of a volcano, tainting the sky and the wandering clouds with the hues of rainbow, the laughter of peace drifting down the skirts of Mt. Kageyama.

…

"Kyou-san, are you alright? You look rather pale." Kusakabe knew better than to point any sort of weakness in Hibari, but finding the HP of the DC of NMS gasping to catch his breath, hair frozen in a more disheveled manner than usual, cheeks and nose bitten red by the cold of a particularly hellish Winter, and clothed in (from what he can tell) nothing but a trench coat drenched with the hues of the night. His eyes narrowed suspiciously at the thought of someone attempting to taint Hibari's innocence concerning certain (many) areas of human nature. _No matter how beautiful Kyou-san may be, there isn't anyone alive who would dare lay a hand on him_—naturally, because he has never been there be a witness, he doesn't know only Pineapples would ever dare or be able to do such a thing. He shook his head of such thoughts. "I was wondering where you had gone. It's already quarter till ten."

"The Baby." Hibari shuffled around Kusakabe, the other's eyes following all of his movements, and began to drag his feet down the hallway.

"_Baby"? Ah, right, Reborn-san is who he is talking about._ Kusakabe sighed. Anything remotely relating to Reborn, it seems, is always a wild mess. So, without further elaboration on the ambiguous answer, he was able to connect the dots: Hibari was dragged into wonders of the cursed child's life and, somehow, ended up in this state. "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"Bath and some cake" was the immediate response after Hibari slid a _shoji_ door opened and entered the room it led into. Hibari heaved a sigh and muttered after the only article of clothing on him disappeared in a flare of violet puffs, "Thanks, Roll." He collapsed on the floor like a sack of potatoes, recalling his lovely trip in the forest.

_He was lost. In a dense forest that creaked its old age. _In the middle of nowhere._ He peered at his barren (in terms of life) surroundings and was momentarily blinded by a ray of sun reflecting off a patch of melting snow. A rustle to his right startled him despite the voice at the back of his mind reminding him to remain calm. He did not turn to see what the hulking shadow hovering in his peripheral vision was nor did he desire to know; therefore, after commanding his numb feet to move, he simply ran in a straight path down the hill until he came upon a road that held a panorama of Namimori. He shielded his eyes from the harsh sun as he scanned the area to discern his location._

_A shrine at the periphery of the town almost directly across from him from where he stood at another peripheral point caught his attention. Willing his pupils to dilate, he was able to see clearly the statue of a five-clawed dragon* twisting its serpentine body to conceal a skylark with its wings spread at its sides as though about to soar upon the roof of the highest levels of what he knew was a (though, most believed it to be a mere mansion) Japanese castle. _My castle._ He threaded his fingers through the damp locks that were at the beginning stages of being frozen, his brow furrowing to depict his exasperation._ How did I end up eight mountains away from where I initially was?_ He scanned Namimori, his expression softening when he caught sight of Nami Middle. _I was looking forward to today's Morning Patrol._ He stiffened his shoulders with a huff, his breath condensing before him. _It'll take about two hours running to get back home if I want to remain unseen.

So, after the long trek, he eventually made it and was now suffering the consequences of running for two hours with no break at all in the dead of winter, for his throat was clenching and burning, his breath wheezing past his lips in an effort to keep him from suffocating. He stood up, stretching his arms high above his head and enjoying the pops and cracks of his joints.

There was a procession of several knocks before a voice spoke through the _shoji_ leading into his room, "Kyou-sama, the bath is ready. Also, a young man stopped by an hour ago to drop off a note."

"Name?"

"I believe it was either Sanada or Sawada Tsuyoshi or something of that sort; he said to just call him Tsuna."

"Understood. Leave the note on the desk in my office, Zen Kichi."

"Right away."

Hibari walked over to the other exit in the room and slid the doors open. A warm mist drifted into the room, and his muscle immediately relaxed at the scent of plum blossoms and green tea. He sauntered over to the steaming water in an area the size of a pool and plunged into his bath in a similar he dived into the _onsen_. He floated in the middle of the pool, his head (the only part of him above the surface) tilted back to stare at the roof. Then, a melodic hum rippled from his throat like honey dribbling down the bark of a tree during summer and broke the silence. The hum developed into a song of his creation in the only foreign language he has mastered, the words echoing gently in the room.

"_Of the drifting cloud hath thou known? Sublime and strong, his will thrives._

"_Didst thou fathom? Being aloof…it's like floating."_

…

"Ah~! I'm in love with Kyou-san all over again! Listening to his singing is like hearing an angel speak!" He extended his arms in an imitation of wings.

Another nodded profusely, his hand over his heart as tears streamed down his cheeks. "It's paradisiacal!"

A third shook his head in unanimous agreement. Nevertheless, he stroked his invisible beard thoughtfully and commented, "I still can't understand what he says; it sounds like some kind of weird English, yet I think I have heard it somewhere before."

"Actually," a fourth person said, a straw of grass hanging from his mouth, "Kyou-san has been reading a lot of Shakespeare's works lately. I believe last night he finished with _Macbeth_."

The third person gave a cry of victory. "That's it! It's archaic English."

The first person wrapped his arms around the second's waist and bent the latter backwards as he bent forth. "O, Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? What man art thou that, thus bescreened in night, so stumblest on my counsel?"

"My name, dear Kyou-san, is hateful to myself because it is an enemy to thee!"

"You have the lines mixed up…"


	3. Nami's Reptiles & Unexpected Marriage

He clutched his head when he was hit with another wave of vertigo. _All of that spinning and dancing has made me dizzy._ He sighed, a puff of white condensing before him, and resumed his long trudge home. But, in actuality, he had no idea whether this road was the one he was supposed to have taken at the previous intersection. A breeze blew by and ruffled his clothing, which in turn gave him no choice but to remember his current dressing: a kimono as red as wine and engraved with golden, intricate flowers, all of the fine threads brewed from a delicate silk. Apparently, it was simply part of the tradition of Namimori for both sexes to cross-dress when participating in the _Bon Odori_. _Why no one has questioned this before is a mystery._ That tradition, however, Kusakabe failed to inform him _in fear I will refuse to participate._

A low, drunken chuckling of men several arms in front of him caused him to straighten his slight wobbling and halt his walking just as a glass bottle propelled past a hair's breath away from his head. The bottle shattered into millions of fragments, pieces of glass flying in all directions; one of the shards nicked his cheek, and a thin trail of blood dripped down unto the exposed skin of his shoulder.

The cacophony extracted the attention of one of the men towards Hibari. The man chuckled, a low, gurgling sound, and whistled, recognition clear as rain within his eyes. "My, if it isn't Hibari Kyouya?" He ground his teeth, eyebrows knitting together, to depict his hatred. "How nice of you to pay us a visit at Kokuyo."

"_Kokuyo?"_ He mentally sighed. _I really did take the wrong road…_He closed his eyes and walked past the five men, not once acknowledging their presence. These men, he recollected with a tinge of annoyance, were once troublemakers in Namimori; they were part of a small yet powerful gang of yakuza that partook in miscreant acts of the carnal sort and was beyond the grasp of law because most of police population was part of it. This yakuza gang—which took the lame name of Nami Snakes—it seemed, also had a thing for nurse outfits, for their main target were the employees of the only hospital of Namimori. Nevertheless, those filthy reptiles were in Luck's Black List, for they were contemporary to the rise of the disciplinarian fist known as Hibari Kyouya. Everyone knew, then, what kind of horrible fate the Nami Snakes was forced to undertake: death by biting.

With their tails tuck between their legs, the surviving members—the ones who somehow managed to escape the mysterious shapes clad in capes, bandages, and chains better known as the Vendice and the Wrath of the Skylark—went into hiding in the closest town…_Kokuyo—there's something cursed about that place._

Another man curled his hand into a fist, red eating at his vision. "That bastard..!"

"Calm down, Mori. I, Kazunaga Hiroshi, will handle this." The other four men immediately stepped aside, their heads bowed in respect, as Kazunaga tapped his cheek with the bottle in his grasp, motioning with his chin at the trail of blood on Hibari. "Sorry, did we hurt you? Allow me to atone for our sin."

Hibari turned his body halfway at this, metallic azure eyes promising nothing less than pain.

Encouraged by the fact he now held the skylark's attention, Kazunaga closed the small distance between them and draped an arm over Hibari's shoulders. Before Hibari could react, he brought the bottle to Hibari's lips and tilted the latter's head back to allow the substance to flow down the skylark's throat.

The vertigo devouring his senses halted its procession enough for Hibari to register the situation by snatching the bottle away from Kazunaga after landing a punch on the latter's jaw. He brought the bottle to his face to take a whiff. _Whiskey…and of a high quality._ He huffed. _These herbivores probably stole it._ He tilted his head back slightly to glare at Kazunaga when, suddenly, his surroundings began to double and blur out of focus as a heat plagued his body. _The hell..?_

Kazunaga roared with laughter, his lackeys echoing it, as he rubbed soothing circles at the swelling patch of skin on his jaw. "He only took a gulp and is already drunk? Pathetic!" His eyes narrowed, a shadow darkening his expression in more ways than one. "_Get him_."

Not wasting a second, Mori rushed to Hibari, a cracked bottle held high over his head to swing down its justice, and snarled, "You'll pay for what you've done!"

Perhaps it was luck or an unconscious movement conjured from the many battles of his life; nevertheless, whatever it was, it had just saved Hibari from being robbed of his left eye in a gruesome manner but ultimately forced him to crumble to the ground. And, for an unfathomable reason, the image of

The last to register in his mind before the hands of darkness blinded him were the victorious cries—clearly, they had not seen the bottle did not in the very least graze him—and fingers curling and twisting him this way and that mercilessly, ripping apart the last of what remained of his mother _after she left with another man_.

…

"Good night, Reborn," Tsuna mumbled as he stifled a yawn with his palm and draped the covers up to his chin.

"Dame-Tsuna, don't forget tomorrow we are leaving to Italy."

"Yeah, I already packed all of my stuff." He rubbed his eyes and yawned again while adjusting his position, the bed creaking in protest. "But is Mukuro a must-come? I swear if I hear another 'fu' I am going to gauge my eyes out."

"'Gauge' and 'gouge' have two, very different meanings, Vongola."

Startle, Tsuna sat up on his bed, eyes wide and mouth agape, and nearly hollered (he was mindful of the other people sleeping), "M-Mukuro, w-what are you doing here?"

Mukuro shrugged and invited himself to sit upon the edge of Tsuna's bed, arms and legs crossed and a slight frown marking him as the Troubled One. "I saw something interesting just now."

Tsuna narrowed his gaze at Mukuro in a none-threatening manner and shuffled closer. He tilted his head forth to have a better view of the illusionist's face; he swept Mukuro's long side-bangs back, careful not to make any skin contact, and mimicked the furrowing of the brow Mukuro had done. "What's wrong?"

He took a brief gander at the brunet, lips curling up slightly at the comfort Tsuna was trying to build. "Hibari Kyouya…was kidnapped."

He could only blink as the words slowly sunk in like a boat drowning within the depths of the ocean. His mouth open and closed continuously, mind working a thousand miles per second to wrap the concept of "Hibari" and "kidnapped" used in the same sentence. "W-what..?"

Reborn, from his laying position on the makeshift bed at the far corner of the room, asked, "Did you see who it was? Hibari, even if he is nine years too early for the strength he saw him to wield in the future, is not one to be defeated easily and much less kidnapped." That last word…it left a foul taste in his mouth.

"If you count that as seeing…"

"Stop beating around the bush, Mukuro, and tell us what happened."

The heavy sleepiness that had him dragging his limbs about dissipated into nothingness and was dominated by worry and fear. Tsuna tugged on the sleeve of the black trench coat the illusionist wore, and, when Mukuro had settled his heterochromatic gaze on him, he said, "You weren't actually there, were you?"

Mukuro chuckled. "That intuition of yours is really something. As you said, I was not there; I had a vision of sorts, one could say, of what happened. And, from all of those disheveled images, I can conclude this: Hibari has an extremely low tolerance of alcohol."

Tsuna's eyebrow twitched, eyes narrowing and burning within a crimson orange flame. "Rokudou Mukuro…are you fucking with me..? 'Cause I swear on Primo's grave if you are I will emasculate you."

Mukuro mentally noted to himself to wear protective gear for his lower regions when Tsuna is pissed off beyond conciliation. "I'm not fucking with you, Vongola. I'm serious."

"What he is saying," Reborn explained as he fought hard the urge to roll his eyes, "Tsuna, is whoever was able to appropriate Hibari got him drunk to abduct him for revenge. But—"

"I didn't hear Mukuro say anything about revenge."

Reborn threw a shoe from who-knows-where at Tsuna, which the latter was not able to evade. "Don't interrupt me." He hummed in satisfaction when Tsuna scrambled to hide behind Mukuro. "But I wouldn't worry. It's Hibari we are talking about, after all."

…

"Reborn," wailed Tsuna, "I still don't see Hibari-san!" Dark shades of purple hung under his eyes, an obvious sign he did not have a wink of sleep because of worry—despite Reborn's countless reassurances that Hibari will be back unharmed—and a certain illusionist that refused to leave his room. "I'll have nightmares of Hibari getting \*&#($ and *&% # by those bastards that took him," argued Mukuro. Therefore, with his ears bleeding profusely and worry heightened, there simply was no way sleep was going to arrive.

Mukuro, on the other hand, had slept like a living corpse…entirely still and chuckling after muttering some profanities under his breath. Tsuna swore he saw two, small, devilish horns upon Mukuro's head and a pointed tail swishing about under the covers.

"Tenth, I still don't see why you are so worried about that bastard."

Yamamoto laughed. "I'm sure he'll come—"

"—to the extreme!—"

"—before we know it."

The ship boomed and commenced to shift away, the waves rocking it from side to side. A strong breeze that carried nothing but the scent of winter and salt shifted the clouds above, and the sun was momentarily veiled. The trees from afar cracked and rustled as a humanoid silhouette bounced from branch to branch to roof to roof.

"We're leaving already!" Tsuna clutched his autumnal locks and pulled them, eyes closed and brow wrinkled. "Ahh! I can't take this anymore! I'm going out to look for Hibari-san." He slipped a container filled with pills from his pocket, popped the lid open, took a pill to swallow it, and shoved the container back into his pocket. A tongue of orange flame sprung upon his forehead, and his eyelids unveiled hazel irises stained with that same flame; an air of serenity and thriving power hung about him. The white mittens on his hands metamorphosed into black, metallic gloves and were engulfed in flames that propelled him towards the sky.

He scanned the area below him, never noticing the silhouette approaching him until it collided with him. The sudden weight startled Tsuna and made him swerve until he regained his balance, his arms instinctively wrapping around whatever or whoever it was that now clung to him. The puffy, disheveled locks and the unmistakable, mellifluous scent of plum blossoms and green tea were all Tsuna needed to register to know who it was. "Hibari-san," asked he, voice like a sigh of relief, "are you alright?" Those mesmerizing eyes turned to peer at him, and Tsuna's heart hammered against his chest as he began to drown in an ocean of silver. _Oh, god, please don't let him hear my heart..!_

"Tired" was all Hibari mumbled before he rested his head against Tsuna's chest and tightened his hold around the brunet's neck. "It's loud…your heart."

A deep crimson tainted his cheeks. "S-sorry."

"Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"Y-yes!"

"The cruise is leaving."

Tsuna shrieked. "I almost forgot about that!" He spun on his location and flew back to the cruise that was by now a mere dot near the horizon viewed from Nari—the name derived from the first and last syllables of "Namimori"—Harbor as Hibari looked down at his precious town.

_Kusakabe Tetsuya, if Namimori is in any state of indiscipline, to death I shall bite you._

…

"They really didn't do anything to you, did they, Kyouya?"

"For the last time, Cavallone, I am fine."

"I beg to disprove, Hibari-san. You still haven't told me what happened to your cheek."

"Sawada Tsunayoshi, Cavallone Dino, unhand me this instant." He tugged at the gray tape securing his limbs to the chair and attempted to move the chair to no avail, for it was screwed to the ground. He scowled at the tape, hoping it spontaneously combust into flames if he glared hard enough.

Dino travelled his hazel gaze to the storm-stricken world outside and sighed. "Sorry," he said (yet he found he was not sorry at all), "Reborn's orders. He doesn't want you and Mukuro to wreck the ship and leave us stranded. Don't worry, though; he also tied up Mukuro, Gokudera, and Lambo."

Hibari clicked his tongue, exasperated and already regretting ever agreeing to travel to Sicily, Italy. _That note the herbivore left at my house was to convene to talk about the succession ceremony of the Guardians Vongola Nono will be hosting at the castle…why did I even bother to listen..?_

Tsuna sauntered over the bed and dropped himself wearily upon it. "Hibari-san, at least let me disinfect your cheek."

"I'll do it myself once you release me."

Seeing Tsuna opening his mouth to protest, Dino interjected, "It's no use, Tsuna. He'll bite your finger off if you try it. I should know best; I still have the scars to prove it."

Tsuna winced in sympathy as he peered at Hibari's lips, wondering if the skylark's teeth really were that sharp.

"Either way…you look good with those clothes, Kyouya. What brand are they?"

_I never knew Dino was one for fashion…is it an Italian thing?_ Nevertheless, Tsuna had to disagree and say Hibari did not look good—he looked _fucking sexy!_ He was dressed in faded black jeans that hugged him to a point that defined his slender legs to perfection; two belts draped over his hips loosely; a lavender shirt (_a sleeveless one, perhaps?_) peeking out from behind a black button-up shirt that was left open by four buttons from the top; a dark gray, thin chain hung closely to his neck; and the bracelet that signified his bond to the Vongola and duty as the Cloud Guardian was upon the wrist he knew a silver watch once was. Even so, Hibari was a handsome and—dare he think it—beautiful teen without the enhancement of the clothes; surely, the Creator must have dropped this angel upon the Earth by accident.

"The shoes are from Lacoste, the pants from Armani, my coat in my room is from Burberry, the shirts are from Gucci, and the belts are from Nordstrom."

Dino's eyes twinkled. "Oh, I tailor my suits from Armani. Have you shopped anything from Prada?"

Hibari shrugged casually. "Sometimes; I go there from time to time to see what they have."

_No, it's not Italian thing, it seems; it's a spoiled-rich-kid thing._

Dino turned to Tsuna. "Have you gone to any of these stores?"

"I wasn't born in so much money I could literally swim in it and raised in a castle on the far hills of Italy."

"Kyouya wasn't raised in a castle on the far hills of Italy."

"Agreed. I was raised in the last standing castle on the far hills of Namimori. Besides, I wasn't born into wealth; I made my wealth." He couldn't help the wicked smirk that graced his features—how he earned so much in a few years was a mystery only those part of the Disciplinary Committee will ever know.

"Hibari-san, you're scary in more ways than one…"

Dino laughed. "Imagine how scary he'll be when you guys get married after the ceremony!"

Simultaneously, Tsuna and Hibari snapped their heads at Dino, eyes wide in horror and mouths agape in disbelief.

"What?!"

Dino backed away slowly, hands held before him as if that was enough to dissipate the dark clouds brewing from the husbands-to-be. _Oops. Reborn is so going to kill me for ruining the surprise…if Kyouya or Tsuna don't kill me first._

…

Muahaha! This is 2718 (not 1827), by the way! FallenxLinkin, I thought hard over the pairing and came up with 2718. I've read only one or two that are of that pairing in that order, so…yeah…There are some hints on 6918 and D18 if you squint. Hahaha. Or should I make this All18?

Ah, please ignore all grammatical mistakes.


	4. Claustrophobia & Erotic Moans

Veils of the blankets of the night was all he had besides the thin silk made for his kimono's nagajuban woven from the purest white to conceal his body. He growled—a low, animalistic ripple from the pits of his throat—at the countless men spread before him. He tugged at the ropes digging into his wrists and ankles in hopes they would snap with his brute strength; it proved to be the umpteenth, futile attempt.

The men, however, instead of stilling under shear fear at the intensity of the glower sent their way, roared with laughter, a chorus of boisterous chortling that grated on Hibari's nerves.

"We should use this as blackmail. I mean, he looks like a girl!" one suggested after the laughter began to die down.

"Hey," another shouted, "where did the shitting camera go?!"

Hibari paled slightly. They were going to take pictures of him in such revealing clothing (of a woman's, nonetheless) while he was bound like a rat? _Over my dead body._

"Up your ass!" replied another, and another chorus of laughter followed.

A man sporting a similar hairstyle as Hibari's S.I.C. strode over, his gait showing nothing but arrogance. "Kyou-ya-chan~!" he cooed as he crouched in front of the said person.

Hibari narrowed his eyelids menacingly, his wrists tugging at the ropes, hands balled into fists as his irritation leveled up several stages. "_Get the fuck away, dirty creature._"

"'Dirty creature,' you say, eh?" He gripped Hibari's jaw with one hand, nails dipping into the skylark's skin sure to leave bruises. Twisting the skylark's head up and to the side, he leaned forward to growl into Hibari's ear, "Watch what you say, you bitch, or I might just grant your wish." As if to prove his point, he dipped his head lower, his tongue darting out to trail saliva up the soft skin of a strong neck.

Bile was threatening to rise from the action. His irritation was already spilling over the caldron's edge, its bubbling substance gliding through his veins at an alarming rate.

The ropes binding his wrists snapped, and Hell broke loose—his tonfa were still on him, but the martial arts his uncle (whose name he was made to swear to never reveal by his deceased father, for if the relationship between this person and Hibari got out…there was no telling what could happen) taught him some years ago were all he needed. After all, what better way was there to feel the bones of his opponents crack and crunch than through his bare fists?

…

The dark chuckle of Mukuro resonated throughout the room. "Ah, so that's why. I was wondering why you had such weak illusions around your fists."

"Tell this to anyone," warned Hibari with all of the malice he could muster at the moment, "and I'll bite you to death."

"_Compris, monsieur._" He craned his neck from side to side, marveling at the sweet sensation it brought to his tired limbs. He sighed. "How long is that sadistic Spartan going to keep us taped to this chairs? I'm bored!"

Reborn had, after they destroyed one of the halls upon first glancing each other when they were making their way to the dinning center, taped them back onto these accursed chairs…in the same room "until you learn your lesson". Mukuro, the one to start the fight this time, did learn his lesson, it seemed; for, when almost four hours passed in utter silence, he was the one to start a casual conversation that somehow led to the topic of the Massacre of a Pissed Skylark.

Why did Hibari bother to follow into the conversation (he had a feeling Mukuro only wanted to know about the illusions concealing his hands)? Well, even he can get bored beyond this universe of awkward silence. "If the Infant is truly a sadist as you say, then he will leave us here until dawn."

_Trust a sadist to know another sadist—I'm the king of sadists, so I wouldn't know how the minds of the peasants work._ He chuckled at his thoughts.

Hibari raised an elegant eyebrow at him. "What are you laughing about?" He snorted. "Creepy Pineapple."

A vein throbbed on Mukuro's temple, his eyebrow gaining spasms. "Repeat that again, _girly boy_?"

He ground his teeth together. "Who are you to talk with that fucking pony—?"

"Stop arguing already!"

Hibari and Mukuro turned their vicious glare to the blond standing at the entrance. Dino flinched, already regretting to coming between the verbal fight of two demons in angle's clothing. He fidgeted, nervously tugging at the ends of his golden locks.

"What do you want, Cavallone? Unless it's to unbind me, I suggest you leave before you become the second ranking in my black list, right after the Pineapple."

Dino fought off the urge to shriek in terror. _Old habits die hard._ "R-Re"—he coughed onto his hand to regain his composure—"Reborn said to bring both of you down to the dinning center on the condition you cool your temper and…" He averted his gaze.

"And?" prompted Mukuro.

"And…to sing a duet."

"No," they said simultaneously, and Dino was sure had they not been bound to chairs he would have a trident and a tonfa poking through his head. Their stomachs rumbled, however, and they grimaced. If Mukuro did not have his arms tied down, he would have thrown his them up in the air in defeat; he opted to sink as far as he could into his chair, and, after a resigned sigh, he mumbled his agreement.

He sucked in his pride for once. "Fine, but I'll erase your memories of it later."

"E-erase…?"

"Yes, do you have a problem with that?"

"…No…"

…

It was as they were heading down to the dinning center when Mukuro caught him by the elbow and leaned down to whisper, "Do tell me how you figured out how to conjure illusions, dear Skylark."

Hibari snatched his elbow away, annoyed Mukuro had the audacity to touch him. "Fuck off, Rokudou." He quickened his pace as some noises ahead were carried into his keen hearing-range.

Something close to a smile graced his lips. _What a stubborn, powerful, beautiful, and complex bird this is._ He shrugged. "I'll pester him later," uttered he to himself.

"I heard that, Pineapple."

"Of course." Some dancing lights to his right caught his attention caused him to halt. _Ah, here's my doom._

Hibari turned around, wondering why Mukuro suddenly stopped…but he knew _very well_ why the illusionist stopped. Then, when Mukuro cocked his head towards where the loud noises where emanating from, he mentally slammed his head against an imaginary wall. Knowing exactly what those melodic sounds and blinking lights were, hoping he could pretend they "got lost" and were never able to get to the karaoke on time, he attempted to run away stealthily Hibari-style (whatever that style implied). _But the herbivore had to ruin it_. Silently and awkwardly, with his arms crossed over his chest, he followed Mukuro onto the stage.

"Please welcome Rokudou Mukuro and Hibari Kyouya," a voice they instantly recognized as Miura Haru announced. The audience complied with loud cheers and claps.

Wide-eyed—something Hibari would have laughed at if he was not also in the same predicament—Mukuro mouthed to him, "Run away." It was too late, though, for the ominous presence of the Dev—Reborn appeared with a gun in each hand pointed at each of them, daring them to run.

He motioned with his guns for them to proceed onto the stage. "Hurry; I'm losing my patience," he said when noticed the illusionist and the skylark were dragging their feet.

Hibari was momentarily blinded by the stage's lights, butterflies swimming in his stomach, as he slowly made his made to one of the microphones; Mukuro, on the other hand, strode to the other microphone like he did it every day.

At the far corner, the brunette announced, "The popular song "Easy Go" by Kazuki Kato released 20XX will be sung as a duet." She bowed and exited the stage.

Hibari cursed. _Do I look like the type to listen to music? I've never heard of that song._ For the first time in his life, he was feeling anxiety eating at him—he did _not_ want to make a fool out of himself in front of all of these people (crowding herbivores, he mentally corrected). He took a gander at Mukuro.

Mukuro smirked. "I have confidence in my voice, you know." He laughed tauntingly. "Don't tell me you are a skylark with the voice of a crow?"

A vein throbbed on his forehead, and he grasped the microphone. "We'll see who the crow is here, _Pineapple_."

"It's on, _Pretty Boy_." He reached for his microphone just as the song began to play. _Hah. I know this song._ "Ladies first." He gave a mock bow.

"Fuck you," he said into the microphone so everyone could hear. Listening closer to the song, he had a brief recollection of the melody—hearing a song once was enough for him to remember like a song would hear countless times; he always had a talent for that, it seemed. He held the microphone closer, ignoring the gapes of many (he probably crushed their hearts when they understood what kind of person Hibari was with his foul language), and began singing, "I can hear your voice that's slipping into the crowd."

"I'm searching for the map of the future in the center of the intersection," Mukuro followed, giving him a displeased glare.

Together: "I believed in dreams always coming true on the other side of the sky. Let's go with _easy go_ to the drawn future, embracing your only dream that no one knows about."

"What is there beyond the night?" sang Mukuro, sticking his tongue at him childishly at the end.

Hibari rolled his eyes. "There are times filled with anxiety. Even if it's impossible, if we don't do anything, it will stay _zero_."

Mukuro kicked him. "Not caring about what is around us, let us step beyond the wall."

"Let's go with _easy go_ to the unseen world," they chorused.

"Even if I fall down again—" Hibari kicked him back. Harder_._

Mukuro winced. "—my heart that started to beat won't be stopped."

Hibari smirked in triumph. "Going toward the future with my _pace_—"

"_I want to go and find myself._" Mukuro threw him a punch.

He caught the illusionist's wrist. "Just one _chance_."

They sang together the rest of the song, throwing a fist or kick here and there all the way, avoiding and colliding, creating a deathly dance, "Grasp it. _Easy go now_. Being worried, to be done, worrying, it would be nice if I can find it myself. Without looking back, I advanced on a path I believe in. Now is when it begins."

The audience stared wide-eyed when a trident and a tonfa were brought forth from who-knows-where.

Hibari side-stepped a trident aimed at his eye as he threw his weapons at Mukuro; the latter, to the dismay of Hibari, caught it with ease and threw it back at him. "Someday you can definitely reach it, embracing your only dream that no one knows about. Going toward the future with my _pace, I want to go and find myself_." Furrowing his brows, Mukuro launched forth, and Hibari was barely able to dodge the sharp ends of the silver trident. "Just one _chance_. Grasp it. _Easy go now._" Hibari aimed a kick at Mukuro's face, and the illusionist stopped the kick by the skylark's ankle, his trident clattering to the floor (he needed the other hand to hold the microphone). "I hear your voice that's slipping into the crowd."

Using the support of Mukuro's hand, Hibari spun lifted himself from the ground, spinning, and his other foot made a solid hit on the illusionist's neck just as the song faded, the microphones falling forgotten some distance away.

The crowd roared with praise, some even going as far as to shout "encore". Obviously, the fight went ignored.

His breath was forced out of his lungs when Hibari landed on him, straddling him perfectly with his shirt curled around those fists sporting slender and elegant fingers.

"I win this fight…_Pineapple_," growled Hibari, a smirk of triumph darkening the azure of his irises. But, when a twinkle of a foreign emotion to Hibari danced about the sharp glaze of crimson belonging to the accursed illusionist and a tongue slid appeared to moisten Mukuro's lips in a hunger-stricken manner, confusion dawned on Hibari; he admitted the usual chuckle of the illusionist was—for lack of a better term—perverted. Not that he should be surprised about that…

_I am so turned on right now._

A fluff of hazel locks and a beckoning by the hand at the exit of the stage trapped Hibari's attention. _Sawada Tsunayoshi?_ Opting to ignore the drooling pineapple, he rose to his feet and, after giving a victorious hum when he found Mukuro not moving a muscle, followed Sawada. Butterflies fluttered in his stomach at the sight of the crowd, and a dizzying shiver wrecked his body; for the love of Namimori…why were crowds so torturous? There was a reason why he had a profound hate of (as he phrased it) "mingling herbivores", and it ground and ripped at his pride as Carnivore the Great Conqueror: he was _fucking-hell-is-a-fuckass_ claustrophobic. This was a wakeup call to those who treated him as a race of his own—he was, indeed and very much so, the last time he checked (which was about a second ago) human. But a carnivorous human, mind you, and not an herbivore. And, for that simple reason, he absolutely _abhorred_ having this-this…this _fear_. He was _the_ Hibari Kyouya. People feared him, not the other way around. Yet, his shaking hands and the continuous gasping hitch in his breath told otherwise. He had, however, managed to control his phobia if the number of people remained below the thirties, or/and he was not stuck in a cramped room that had no windows and only one closed door that will not budge no matter what he did, even biting it to death. Kusakabe, of course, since he was aware of this…fear…made sure the skylark was never stuck in any of the aforementioned situations; when it did occur, though, he always forced a day off on Hibari and created a half-assed excuse for the absence of the DC leader if anyone asked, not caring he would be at the receiving end of deadly tonfa if and when Hibari discovered said poor excuse.

Too bad Kusakabe wasn't here now.

He quickened his pace, eyes drifting shut to drown out the sight of countless people constricting and constricting and _constricting_ the remaining amount of oxygen, suffocating him to the point of being over-the-top painful. He was too intent on leaving behind the crowd he never noticed passing the herbivore he followed out on request.

"Hibari-san, wait a sec! Where are you going?!" It was no use, though. Hibari had turned the corner at the end of the hall, towards the deck, without even acknowledging his presence by glancing his way or giving a sign the skylark heard him. Concern instantly plagued him like an awful influenza-turning-pneumonia. _It's raining cats and dogs outside._

…

Rampant coughs shook his shoulders violently, the rain quite literally cascading down him and stealing what little he had left of warmth. He slumped to the wooden floor, a splash of water protesting against his movement, head tilting back to rest against the metal railing, his obsidian locks sticking to the surface. He held his breath for forty seconds, willing his heart to cease its throbbing. He exhaled his breath in a lengthy sigh, and he groaned. _Loving hell, I hate this. If only _that_ had never happened…_

The rain suddenly stopped its pitter-patter upon him, his surroundings muffling to a low _shaaa_. He wearily cracked his eyelids open, ready to glare at whatever disrupted the wonderful, cooling sensation of the rain, only for his brain to halt all its processing.

Sawada Tsunayoshi, with a deep frown knitting his delicate eyebrows with concern and teeth nipping at his lower of those perfectly-formed lips for a moment or two before drawing courage from who-knows-where to move closer to the prefect, held an umbrella ridiculous wide (enough to shield three people entirely from the excretions of the grey sky) that was shaded in an even more ridiculous tint: a pink bright enough to become a temporal sun. "Are you alright? Those were some dreadful coughs."

Anger at being caught in such a weak state surfaced bereft restrain, and he lashed out a tonfa, fully intent on causing some sort of brain damage that would trigger amnesia. Well, he would have had not the brunet grasped his wrist with a strength thought to be impossible for someone of such a seemingly non-muscular build. Clearly, he was proven completely and entirely wrong on that part—he could practically feel the ripple of toned muscles as Tsuna forcefully lowered his arm.

"Hibari-san, please, tell me what's wrong." His tone, soft yet demanding, left no room for opposition.

He marveled at the back of his head what the few years of training under the notoriously Spartan Infant were able to convey. Indeed, Tsuna was well on his way to be Vongola Decimo. Hibari, always the stubborn soul, remained quiet, his gaze unwavering from that gentle orange one.

"Hibari-san," said Tsuna sternly, his gaze hardening.

For the first time in his life, Hibari broke away from the gaze, preferring to stare at the violent ocean below. "It's none of your business."

Something snapped in Tsuna. "Yes, it is! You're my Guardian—no, my friend. If I see you like this, how can ignore you?" Not that he'll ever ignore the Cloud—he always found his eyes travelling and probing about for a glimpse of those handsome features Hibari sported so gracefully.

"_Friend"…it doesn't feel right. But "not friend" is also bothersome…what is it, then?_ His brain perused and perused for the reason to no avail—he was never familiar with anything gregarious. He frowned.

With a resigned sigh, Tsuna formed a smile on his lips. "Come on. We should go back in before you get sick." He offered a hand, yet he was expecting for Hibari to slap the help away…not take it with a hand wrapped in loose and bloodied bandages, the light shaking still wrecking Hibari transferring into Tsuna's hand. He gaped slightly. "Hi-Hibari-san, what happened to your hand?"

Hibari stumbled a step or two as vertigo played with his vision. "My hand?"

Tsuna brought the hand gingerly closer to his face for inspection. He grimaced. _Even I can bandage better than this._ He took a peek at Hibari (who had yet to recover from his vertigo). _Did Hibari-san do it?_ He wanted to smack himself upside the head for that. _Of course it would be done by Hibari-san! He'd rather die than receive help_. He snickered at that—the great Hibari Kyouya not able to wrap bandages properly? That's entirely unexpected, especially when the skylark was what one would consider to be a genius at everything. _Almost everything_, he corrected. _I guess even Hibari-san is not perfect…what am I saying? No one is perfect!_

Hibari knitted his brow. "What are you laughing about? And let go of my hand, herbivore; you're increasing my heartbeat."

Tsuna blinked. "U-umm, increasing your heartbeat? I…umm…is that a good thing…?"

He fidgeted, an unknown warmth rising to his cheeks, as he averted his gaze to anywhere but the brunet. "How should I know?" he mumbled.

His eyes went comically wide. _Wah! Hibari-san is blushing! S-so cute! Ah, wait; wait; wait! I increase his heartbeat by merely holding his hand and make him blush? This is rather presumptuous of me and conceited, but something tells me I am right: Hibari-san likes me!_ Cue silence of realization. _Holy Primo's grave! Hibari-san likes me! _He rubbed against Hibari's hand, sniffing and sobbing in ecstasy. _Hurray for mutual love!_

_But!_ He chuckled darkly. _I am so going to use this as pay back for all those times he beat me up._ With the loveliest smile he could muster, he tugged on Hibari, motioning with a cock of his head towards the entrance. "Let's go."

Hibari could only follow Tsuna, perplexed beyond this world: First, the brunet blushes, his eyes wide with shock; then, he frowns as if in deep contemplation; after that, his features snap into a blinding grin, followed by some sort of mumbled coos as he cries. Lastly, the most perplexing part of it all was the chuckle that could rival Mukuro's in the darkest of moods, only for an angelic curl of the lips to dominate. It was not until several minutes of walking Hibari was brought out of his thoughts by a soft click of a door and the veiling darkness broken by the dim lighting filtering through the window.

"I hope you don't mind being in my room. I'll go get you some towels." Tsuna disappeared behind a door at the far corner of the room.

Hibari shivered—the cold was starting to seep under his skin. He groaned as he rubbed his eye with the heel of his palm, his fingers unconsciously unbuttoning his shirt and throwing all of his upper clothing behind him, a wet splat resounding behind him as he kicked his shoes along with his socks off. _So tired…_He dragged his legs to the nearest piece of furniture and lay upon one with a dull _thump_. He curled into himself, his eyelids slowly drifting shut.

"I'm ba—" He blinked. Surely, he wasn't imagining this, right? He peered around the room, his senses reaching out and probing for anything illusion-related. Nothing. He shuffled closer to the skylark, drooling at the sight of toned abs—the result of years and years of biting—and exposed skin of the texture of delicate porcelain and the softest silk. No, his hands were not wondering where they are not supposed to; he doesn't know what you're talking about…

He slapped himself across the face, nearly giving himself whiplash. _Pervert, snap out of it!_ With an annoyed huff directed at himself, he stopped the wondering of his hands—_I don't know what you're talking about!_—to shift Hibari onto his back (_No, it's not to get a better view of his body; I swear! It's to have better access to his hands so I don't make it uncomfortable for Hibari-san_). His hand brushed accidentally against a certain part of the skylark's chest.

Hibari turned his head, his wet strands sticking to everything giving him an exotic appearance. Pink dusted his cheeks, lips glazed by the moisture of rain opening to allow an erotic moan echo throughout the uselessly grand room: "Ahn…!"

…

Muahahaha. I am in an evil mood, so I am stopping it there. Any votes for M-rated material? Haha. I should warn I have no experience in writing such…scenes…sigh.

Please ignore any and all mistakes.


	5. Of Perverted Tuna and the Eighth Wonder

I…umm…typed the…_scenes_…with my eyes closed, so if you find any mistakes, please, ignore them. I _am not_ going back and reading through those…_parts_…I swear on Primo's grave this is going to give me a massive fever with the way I am blushing…

If it's a bit confusing, the…_scenes_….are not in chronological order and are meant to follow what each person says so as to make it seem like flashbacks of Tsuna's "glorious moments".

…

He laced his fingers through his autumnal locks, tugging at them not gently at all. "'I feel like I am forgetting something'? Really? How could I have _possibly_ forgotten the reason why I dragged Hibari-san to my room in the first place? I manage to remember to change (_well, more like put some on_) and dry his clothes, yet not once—even after looking at them for hundreds of times—did it cross me to treat his hands?" He yanked several strands out, throwing his head back with an exasperated yell. "Is all I think about sex?!" Throwing the fallen strands to the world behind him when he spotted a blue head with a bunch of spiked locks at the back strolling aimlessly through (yes, _through_, not by or around) walls, he hollered, catching the attention of all bystanders, "Mukuro! You'll pay for corrupting my mind!"

With an almost—almost—innocent stare, Mukuro replied as he phased through a wall and appeared back again further down the hall, "Whatever do you mean? It was your tutor's idea." He disappeared again behind a wall, and several screams of shock and expletives resounded. He walked back out, face forming a pleased smile, and wondered at a slower pace, his body suddenly gaining a sort of transparency and his feet elevating from the ground. Purposefully, he glided through a couple (who were giggling and cooing at each other and obviously not paying attention at all).

"Wh-what the hell?! What was that?!"

Mukuro slid his fingers down the man's cheek to his neck, expression that of anger. "So, you murder me to leave with this girl?" The clicking of his tongue could have been much like the trigger of a gun. "My, how naughty…_Sanosuke_. I'll take my sweet revenge. Just wait." He disappeared behind a veil of mist…and reappeared in front of Tsuna with a blinding smile.

Sanosuke was frozen in place.

"That was fun. Wouldn't you say so, young Vongola?" He flipped the long tresses draped over his shoulder behind him. "Now, what were you mumbling about before you screamed my name?"

He conjured his best glare. "None of your business."

"I beg to differ. If you found out about the Skylark's hands, he'll blame it on me."

Pink dusted his cheeks as he averted his gaze. "No, he won't blame it on you…what else did you hear?" he mumbled.

Mukuro brought his nails close for inspection, a bored look plastered on his features. "Oh, I don't know. Something around the sort of 'I feel like I am forgetting something' and 'how could I have possibly forgotten the reason why I dragged Hibari-san to my room in the first place?' There was something else to do about changing and drying his clothes and 'Is all I think about sex?' Blah, blah, blah, so on, and so forth."

Tsuna hung his head in defeat. _He heard everything…_

"And I did, too."

He whirled around, eyes wide. "R-Reborn, stop it with your freaky mind-reading!"

"Your face says it all, Dame-Tsuna." He kicked the brunet on the shin, earning a winced gasp. "I want to hear about your nightly activities, and if you leave anything out…" He lowered his fedora, casting a brooding shadow over his childish features (he looked like a ten-year-old now that the curse was broken and a year has passed; he was becoming taller each day by a few centimeters…Was he supposed to grow this fast…?).

"W-wait, please finish that sentence!"

…

Reborn gaped—an action he found he was never expecting to be able to have—at Tsuna. "You. _You_ of all the population on Earth _took advantage_ of _Hibari Kyouya_?"

_Tsuna's hand wonder under the last piece of clothing, and said clothing suffered a replica of the fate of the pants. He licked his lips, admiring the panorama of the skylark he thought once would only exist in his dreams. _This,_ he concluded, _is so~ much better than those dreams._ His traveled to either side of Hibari's hips, lazy circles playing there with his thumbs._

_Hibari mumbled something in his sleep, head turning to the other side as a delicate frown framed his features._

_He chuckled at that, his tone several notes deeper and smoother like the serenity of his HDWM trigged. Shuffling back a bit, he leaned down, and his tongue darted to give a tentative lick from the base to the top, his tongue purposefully adding pressure to the slit._

"_A-ah…! Nngh-no, stop…" Hibari's nails clawed at the sheets, the hue on his cheeks shading till a dark crimson._

Tsuna had no response to that, mind a wide blank. _He called a meeting…for me to tell…in specific detail…what happened…_his mind processed at the speed of Enzo's lazy strides.

_Tsuna gulped as his pants began to become unbearably tight, a trail of nervous sweat sliding down his cheek and collecting on his chin until it fell like a silent raindrop. His eyelids lowered, an almost-purr emanating from his throat, deep orange irises becoming stained by lustful ruby. Like a lion inching closer to its unknowing prey, he crawled onto the bed while lifting Hibari's legs over his shoulder, his hand traveling sensually down from under one knee towards a firm buttock; he squeezed it, nails scratching playfully, earning a faltering gasp. His pants tightened further. Impatiently, his other hand unbuckled the belts and, after popping the button through the hole, he zipped down the zipper as his other hand tugged the pants away and over his head onto a random spot on the wooden floor._

_He stared at the bulge forming on the skylark's boxers; deeming it not to his taste yet, he palmed it lightly, fingers brushing and caressing._

_Cute, little noises were conjured from the skylark, his breath hitching when Tsuna's finger passed over his tip._

Mukuro chuckled, arm hanging behind the chair in a comfortable manner, eyes closed, and that perpetual curl of the lips curling further. "I knew you would take after me."

_Fueled by the reaction, Tsuna parted his lips and directed the appendage's head into his mouth with the hand that did not travel to grope at the skylark's ass. Each suck he gave become surer than afore while he took in more until it hit the back of his throat—he was amazed he did not gag. _I'm better at this than I thought…all of those lessons of Mukuro that Reborn forced on me are actually helping for once.

_If anything, the skylark's lewd moans only became louder, and Tsuna had a slight fear someone would barge into the room and see…_this_. He shrugged the thought off, preferring to savor the skylark till the very last millisecond as he began to bob his head up and down. He closed his eyes in concentration._

"M-my chance with Kyouya…ruined…" Dino sobbed, teeth digging into his lower lip as he sniffed.

_Hibari threw his head back (well, as far back as the bed would allow), toes curling as a silent scream rippled from his throat. "T-Tsunayoshi…!" He sprayed his seed deep into the brunet's throat, and the latter bereft hesitation swallowed it as though it was the tastiest smoothie._

"No, really, Vongola, I never thought you would be _that_ much like me," Mukuro continued after a brief frown of thought passed through his expression.

_Tsuna nearly cried. _He said—no, he moaned my name!_ It was very tempting to squeal like those crazy fan-girls whenever they see their object of interest. Giving one last lick as if reluctant to let go, Tsuna sat back as his hands commenced their incessant roaming of the perfect body below him; Hibari's legs fell off his shoulders. _Hibari-san came rather fast. _He chuckled (he had to wonder if Mukuro's chuckles really were that contagious, or, even worse, if it was going to become a habit), his dark side taking over_. Bwahaha! I tainted a virgin…and Hibari-san is so totally going to kill me for that…_He shrugged casually. _I'll take it like a man, and then take Hibari-san again, of course.

…I think Shamal is getting to me.

_He sighed as he peered around the room. _I feel like I am forgetting something.

"H-huh? Dino-san, you…I thought…" Gokudera hung his head with a groan.

Yamamoto laughed. "I win the bet, Haya—Gokudera. Tsuna made the first move."

No one bothered to point out the change of name or the fact Gokudera had voted against his precious leader's favor.

Ryouhei (for once the most composed one) cleared his throat. "I guess this means there won't be any complications with the marriage…?"

Gokudera, Yamamoto, and Tsuna, with the velocity they turned their heads, were sure they inflicted whiplash as they said simultaneously, "What marriage?"

"Ah, Tsuna, I mentioned it before by accident to you and Kyouya before, remember?"

_How could I forget that!_

Reborn shot Dino a glare colder than the South Pole during its coldest winter night. "Mind repeating that?"

As Dino laughed awkwardly while scratching the nape of his neck, Mukuro nudged Tsuna with his elbow. When Tsuna turned to him with a questioning look, he pointed at his knuckles.

Tsuna, immediately understanding what the illusionist meant, shot up from his seat, the chair clattering to the floor, as his eyes widened to extreme—here, Ryouhei pumps a fist into the air—levels. "That's what I forgot!" He reached down and pulled his suit's coat from under the fallen chair, pivoting on his heels to face the double, mahogany doors. "I have something to do," he informed to the puzzled group behind him. After draping his coat by the middle over one forearm, he reached for the handles of the doors and clicked the doors open, saying in a rush of words in the general direction of Mukuro, "I'll thank you later." Not waiting for a response, he disappeared down the hallway and into the connected corridor.

"What was that all about?"

"Shut up, Baseball Idiot. If the Tenth has something of great—'great' because everything he does is blessed by his essence—importance to do, then you can't question it."

Yamamoto puckered his lips, brows knitting slightly. "Hayato, you make me jealous of Tsuna when you praise him like that." His hand traveled not so innocently up Gokudera's thigh, mouth tugging into a smirk as he leaned forward so their lips brushed. "I'll forgive you if you give me a kiss."

"W-w-wh-wha—" A crimson taint crawled onto his cheeks, mind going into a state of rubbish sounds: afgahstdqwd.

He pressed their lips together, effectively silencing Gokudera.

Gokudera drifted his eyelids closed, tilting his head to the side as he gave an aperture for Yamamoto's tongue to wonder in and commence the usual dance of swirls, teasing bites, and sucks, not caring three (Reborn had dissipated into thin air, not before throwing a punch and a glare at Dino, of course) people were their spectators. He always lost all common sense—the fact this relationship was supposed to remain a secret (by Gokudera's wish)—when Yamamoto seduced him like that.

Mukuro, from the nonexistent fourth dimension, conjured a camera, his heterochromatic irises waltzing to the muffled, demonic tune playing at the far corner in his omniscient—he did have several lives of knowledge, mind you—brain. _Perfect blackmail material._

…

Groaning as he nearly lost his balance, he willed himself from collapsing onto the floor—all of his energy seemed to be sapped out of him. It might have been the fault of the dream he could no longer remember, or (this troubled him the most) his claustrophobia was going beyond his level of control again. _I can't remember anything after I went out onto the deck_. He stopped his tracks. _This is bad—I woke up in a room not my own._ God, how he wished Kusakabe was here…The wounded hands Kusakabe would without question or a second thought treat with the tenderness reserved for a child were throbbing, reminding him of his—very, if one may add—apparent lack of skill in dressing a wound properly; Kusakabe was also there, a lurking, omnipresent shadow at his right and a towering, kind, protecting mass of powerful muscle that made up the perfect body guard for one of such gentle features like Hibari—the latter without fail proved to be effective, for, when Hibari had yet to pick up the weapons he now wields with the grace of a swan, no one made a second glance (the kind of glance that could taint the whitest white a pitch black) towards the skylark. But now, when Hibari could not even lift a hand—an injured hand—to swat a fly away and was convulsing from just remembering the crowd from the day before, Kusakabe was miles and miles and _miles_ away. And, no, Hibari will not stoop so low as to call the older man for something as herbivorous as comfort.

"Ah, Hibari-san, I finally found you," a voice lacking the proper amount of breath and the stomp of polished shoes against carpeted floor drifted down the corridor. The voice became louder: "Hibari-san! Wait a sec!"

It was a mistake to turn around, for his knees crumbled under his weight, and he slumped, head pulsing painfully at the jostling movement in protest. A fluff of autumnal locks and a slender form in formal wear was all Hibari was able to see through his hazy peripheral vision. "Sawada…Tsunayoshi?"

"_T-Tsunayoshi…!"_ A lump obstructed his speech, heat rising at the wanted but currently unwanted memory. He swallowed thickly as he kneeled in front of Hibari, his hand doing its usual habit of brushing aside bangs with the tenderness of a mother. _That sounds like incest…_He mentally shook his head of such thoughts. "Are you alright? I'm sorry I forgot to dress your hands last night; you fell asleep, and I didn't want to wake you."

Hibari's breath hitched at the contact, and his body tensed, red coloring his cheeks. He wanted to bite the brunet's hand off and order, "Don't touch me." Yet, instead of biting, he lurched forward, his head colliding with the juncture of the neck and shoulder of Tsuna, and a muffled, growled groan seeped past his lips unnoticed, relishing at the sensation of cooler skin against his burning forehead.

Tsuna flinched at the heat radiating off the skylark as his hands unconsciously wrapped around Hibari into a tight embrace. If anything, that only made the skylark to struggle against his hold, breathing short exhales and deep inhales. Feeling like Hibari wanted to get away from _him_ and not to the embrace, he tightened his hold, a soft frown marring his features. "Hibari-san," he said sternly, authoritatively—Reborn would be proud to see Tsuna taking on the boss-role.

Surprisingly, Hibari did cease all movement, even going as far as to slump onto him and controlling his breath so it died down to a restless tone.

_Perhaps a bit too still_…He shrugged the shoulder Hibari was resting on, and the latter's head lolled precariously to the side and almost off his shoulder. The skylark's eyes were covered by raven locks. Panic rose in his chest. "Hibari-san?" He reached a hand up to brush away the locks to find the skylark's eyelids closed in a false tranquility, thumb trailing a semicircle across a roseate cheek; he cringed at the unhealthy heat once more. "Oh, god, tell me you didn't just faint on me." He shook Hibari's shoulder gently, and the latter only moved along with the movement like a helpless doll. He bit his lower lip. _Fuck, he did faint._

With as much carefulness and gentleness as he could possibly ever muster, he lifted Hibari onto his arms and stood up slowly. _Hibari-san is so light—is that a good thing, I wonder?_ At times like these, he silently thanked his tutor's monstrous physical (and mentally (A/N: Hurray for 2718 words!) scarring) training.

"Sawada? What happened to Hibari to the extreme?"

Tsuna would have jumped if not for Hibari weighing him down; he did shriek, though. As quickly as possible, he pivoted on his heels to face Ryouhei in his look-at-my-abs-and-be-jealous glory. "Oh, _Onii-san_, you scared me." He looked at the skylark as he bit his lower lip momentarily. "I think Hibari-san fainted."

He knitted his brows, ceasing his bobbing of the feet to stare intently at Hibari. "Hibari extremely fainted?" he reiterated in his…special way of saying things. "Did he look like he was dizzy or nauseous? Is he running a fever?"

Something else to add to his Thankful For list: after the curse of the Arcobaleno was broken, Colonello, as gratitude, taught Ryouhei, who had the intelligence of a kindergartener at the age of fifteen, everything needed to be known on the medical field for the violent world of the Mafia. Tsuna hoped that would cure the "extremeness" of his senior, but that proved to be futile: Ryouhei found another way to be extreme through his knowledge on medicine and such things.

"I don't know about the dizziness, but I do know he has a fever."

Ryouhei motioned to Tsuna to follow him with a flick of the wrist. Walking backwards in front of Tsuna, he rested his palm under the skylark's fringe for several seconds, and Tsuna could not help but feel protective of Hibari when the boxer touched the skylark so casually. Ryouhei frowned, a thoughtful hum filling the silence.

Resisting the urge to somehow slap away Ryouhei's hand, he called for the boxer's attention.

"Do you know what happened before Hibari collapsed?"

A red blush crept onto his cheeks, and he coughed awkwardly to will it unsuccessfully away. "I—err…that is…umm…hugged him. But nothing more than that; I swear!"

He raised an incredulous eyebrow.

"Don't look at me like that, _Onii-san_…Hibari-san just like sort of collapsed or something on top of me, and I unconsciously hugged him; then, he started to struggle and hyperventilate. That's when he stopped moving all of a sudden," he explained in a rush of words.

A thought struck him, halting his gait; Tsuna nearly collided against him. "Hibari's distaste for crowds, the way he was acting on stage yesterday, his struggling against a hug, hyperventilation, fainting…Sawada, I know what's wrong with Hibari to the extreme!" He punched the air for emphasis.

"Y-you do?"

Ryouhei nodded gravely. "Yes, Hibari has an extreme case of claustrophobia."

…

_Claustrophobia, huh? That makes sense, but—_"_the_ Hibari-san _afraid_ of something? That should be marked as the Eighth Wonder of the World." Said Wonder was lying for the second time under the covers of the brunet's bed, a damp towel over his brow. He had not moved at all aside, his skin a clammy paleness, and Tsuna had a fear of his own brewing: the death of the skylark. But a quick check of the not-so-gentle rising and falling of the covers and the fast drumming of a heart told otherwise.

Reborn (who they had bumped into quite literally as they made their way to the Northwest Dormitory and were forced to explain the events) barked orders like a military protocol, "I'll call Irie so he can hack Hibari's phone to get Kusakabe's number; Tsuna, you are responsible of informing Kusakabe of what happened. Make sure he tells you what the cause of Hibari's claustrophobia and whether Hibari already has a therapist. Ryouhei, I'll contact Shamal if you can't determine what is causing the fever."

Ryouhei, after much speculation and examination, could only come to one conclusion: because of accumulated exhaustion caused by the nightly…_event_, which the fault falls on the perverted grace of Sawada Tsunayoshi; the torrent of rain the skylark ruffled its disturbed feathers under; and the effects of being trapped on a stage in front of perhaps ninety-eight percent of the cruise's population, Hibari, despite having his "extreme physical ability" (as Ryouhei worded with a punch towards the roof), collapsed, fainted, blackout-ed, so on and so on.

Irie Shouichi (_I didn't even know he was on the cruise!_) hacked Hibari's phone in an estimated time of ten seconds. Once he thanked Shouichi for the deed everyone knew would bring a painful death by biting, Tsuna called Kusakabe after much decoding of the weird nicknames—the only one he could recognize at a glance was the one labeled as "Bucking Bronco", and jealousy spilled over the caldron's edge _because he has Dino's number and not mine._ The revelation of Dino's affection for the skylark only fueled the gooey substance to seep through the cracks of the stone floor of the crumbling castle.

He digresses—everything and anything concerning or related to Hibari does that to him; it's as if the skylark was the definition of "wonder" in every sense.

Kusakabe was reluctant to answer at first when Tsuna inquired whether Hibari had claustrophobia. But slowly, like a hermit crab crawling out of its shell, he spilled the details:

No one knew—not even the deceased father of Hibari according to the S.I.C.'s distant recollection of a conversation betwixt friend's-son-and-more-than-willing-subordinate to father-and-master-of-the-household—why Hibari was claustrophobic; there was a suspicion, though, it had "something to do with Mother's betrayal with another man behind Shou-san, Kyou-sa—Hibari's father and one of the tutors of his superb ability in the martial arts".

"And there was no therapist for Hibari-san because of his refusal to have one and because he learned to control it and was able to keep it in check only if he was not trapped entirely in a small room or cramped in a crowd that is especially loud," paraphrased Tsuna to Reborn when the latter came to check whether Tsuna had done his "homework". Tsuna had a suspicion it was not to check on him but on Hibari.

After a long discussion, it was decided a therapist was not in need for hiring but everyone was to keep a close eye on Hibari so the skylark does not befall into a situation described to trigger that fear of his. "Che. How troublesome" was the only complaint, courtesy of Gokudera.

Mukuro had been excluded from the discussion in fear he would use the skylark's phobia for X-reason as a means of whatever payback he wanted to convey. Nevertheless, Tsuna had a feeling Mukuro already knew.

Hibari stirred, pulling Tsuna out of his thoughts. He moaned softly, removing the towel from his forehead and dropping it over the edge of the bed to rub soothing circles on his temples. His eyelids slowly drifted open, and he blinked at the new bandages that were properly wrapped around his hands and the distinct scent of antiseptic medicine.

A smile graced Tsuna's features. "I'm glad you are awake, Hibari-san. Are you hungry? It's already seven in the evening."

Hibari narrowed his groggy gaze at Tsuna, lips set into a line of distaste. "Why am I here again, herbivore?" He took a quick gander of the room. "Where is this?"

_Ah-ah, I miss it already when he calls my name…_"My room. You fainted."

If that wasn't a blow to his pride, then Mukuro's hair is not a pineapple. He opted to drilling holes with his eyes into the ceiling, fading Tsuna into the walls.

He sighed. "I take it you are not hungry?"

"I'll bite you to death."

"Right…"

Setting his azure scowl on Tsuna, he said, "I remember perfectly well what you did; you'll be bitten for that."

Immediately, Tsuna's head reeled back to the previous night, a darker-than-wine blush on his cheeks. _Please tell me he's not talking about _that_._

Hibari slid his feet from under the covers and onto the floor. "Sawada Tsunayoshi."

"_T-Tsunayoshi…!"_ Tsuna slammed his head against an imaginary wall. _Stop that, stupid brain!_ "Y-yes?"

"For the crime of embracing me, you shall be bitten afore arrested and the excretion of your memory of ever doing such an action by the metal of a tonfa."

Cue girly shriek and the cacophonous destruction of innocent furniture.


	6. Drunken Master

I'm so, so, so, sorry for the late update! I had this chapter halfway done, but there was a system error in my computer, so all of the files stored in it were deleted. Why...?!

Sigh. To those who read Vongola no Mago: I'll have the next chapter ready soon; truly sorry!

Ugh. From now on, I'm typing everything on my phone.

Please excuse any grammatical/spelling errors.

...

"Dinner will be served half past eight. Don't be late," informed Reborn, who was now his original height before he was trapped in an accursèd infant's form—he had a growth spurt of sorts overnight. "I was a shrimp when I was seventeen," he had explained with the air one gains when trapped in the world of memories; "but the summer before I turned eighteen, I grew several inches. That's why most probably I grew quickly in a matter of seconds." He had tilted his fedora to cast a shadow over his face. _Time really does fly by._

"Not hungry," Hibari grunted as he downed a tankard of what looked suspiciously like ale.

"_Oi, oi_, should the Tonfa-Bastard even be drinking alcohol?" His question was lost in the background as those present—the entire Vongola, to be more precise, if one doesn't count the Varia and previous generations, along with Cavallone Dino and Romario—got lost in their own drink.

Yamamoto, situated at Gokudera's right, laughed, his perpetual grin increasingly in volume, showing off pearly white teeth. "It's not like we are any older, Haya—Gokudera."

_Che. At least one is listening. _"That's not what I meant, idiot. Remember the call the Tenth received yesterday from that Kusagi guy—"

"Kusakabe Tetsuya-san, Gokudera-kun," reminded Tsuna from Gokudera's left.

"(Thank you, Tenth)—Kusakabe guy?"

"You're welcome. Which call: the one in the morning or the one in the evening?"

"Don't forget the one at four-seventeen, Tsuna."

"Yeah, that one, too; thanks, Shouichi."

"No problem. By the way—"

"—It was the one in the evening."

Yamamoto's traveled to the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, the soft glow of the makeshift candles creating stars in his hazel irises. "I thought it was the one in the morning, though, Spanner."

The stick of the lollipop protruding in his mouth swished about as he became lost in thought for a few seconds. He shook his head. "No, it was definitely the one in the morning."

"True," said Mukuro while swirling the contents of his drink as he brought the glass of crimson liquid closer to his lips, inhaling the scent of the sweet berries of the wine, "but the skylark's puppet called twice in the morning." He sipped the wine, lids closing in delight.

Dino hummed as he took swallowed the rest of his drink, gaze never leaving the backs of Reborn and Hibari. "What I'm wondering is what those two are talking about in such hushed wispers."

"I don't think Cloud-Man would hold a conversation in a whisper."

"Haru thinks Chrome-chan is right." Haru tilted her head towards Tsuna, flashing him a smile. "What does Tsuna-san think?"

Tsuna blinked as he took a gulp from his orange juice with the help of a violet straw when all eyes were set on him, pink crawling on his cheeks from all of the attention. "E-eh?" He threaded his fingers through his hair that was for once able to be tamed (_I hope it stays like this for the rest of my life._), scratching the nape of his neck. "I—ah..." He sighed, placing his hand back around his glass. "I think Hibari-san would only be able to hold a conversation with Reborn without having the urge to bite someone to death, actually."

Mukuro leaned forward suddenly, raising the fork poked into a piece of chocolate pastry of some sort, expression erased of its smirk. "Vongola, there it is again."

Tsuna gulped. "Wh-what is?"

Irie tapped his chin. "Yes, I remember now when Kusakabe-san called," muttered he.

"Haya—Gokudera, mind ordering me some of whatever Mukuro is eating? It looks delicious!"

"Does anyone know where Lambo-chan and I-Pin-chan are?"

"Now that you mention it—"

"They are extremely asleep, Kyoko!"

"Turf-Head, lower your—"

The clicking of metal against glass interrupted Gokudera, halting a fight from erupting successfully, and attracting the attention of everyone, the chatter that had brewed turning to nothing as all eyes were placed on Mukuro. Satisfied, Mukuro poked his fork into the chocolatey deliciousness and announced, "You're not keeping up your end of the deal, young Vongola."

That definitely peeked everyone's interest, especially when Tsuna hued several shades of pink. "B-b-but I can't do it!"

Fighting down the urge to slap away the cowardice once and for all from Tsuna, he assured, "Just a simple 'Kyouya' and the videotape you have yet to give me of your—"

"Ahh! Don't say it!"

"—fantasies of the dear Skylark becoming real, and I promised to leave you and the dear Skylark free." He tore the piece of the delicacy and placed it in his mouth. He chewed, a trance of the Bliss of Chocolate befalling him. He swallowed reluctantly quickly, nearly choking himself in the process. "For a week, that is."

"Even a day would be a miracle." Yamamoto laughed. "You can do it, Tsuna!"

_I never go to finish my point..._He shrugged. _Not my problem if the Bastard has an extremely low tolerance for alcohol. _"Well, at least I'll get some good blackmail," mumbled Gokudera as he rested the side of his face on his knuckles that were, of course, ornated with eccentric rings.

"Did you say something, Gokudera-kun?"

Gokudera grinned, eyes forming happy bows, concealing the lovely greens. "Nope, nothing at all, Tenth; nothing at all!"

_..._

_The wind curled around his fingers as he pushed the window open, cringing at the creaks of the hinges. He took in a deep breath as he lifted a leg and propped himself up, silently cheering himself on. Carefully, he turned around on the windowsill in his crouched position and slowly raised himself, groping about for a protruding edge. Finding one, he let his feet dangle, the gusts of wind nearly breaking his grip. He grunted as he used all of the strength in his arms to lift himself so as to set a foothold onto where his hands grasped; in fear of losing his balance, he reached his hands towards the railing above his head. He peered up, raven locks blocking his vision momentarily while noting with a furrow of the brows the sky was grey, signifying the dawn of morrow. He forced himself up with the help of a jump and latched onto the next rail. He repeated the motion till he reached a window just as a man in a military uniform of sorts holding a silver tray with several items of food on it. He swallowed the lump unconsciously forming in his throat_—that's the man who brings my breakfast._ He bit on his lower lip, gaze dropping to a distressed glare._ I have two minutes to get away before all of the rest of the herbivores are informed of my disappearance and they go on a rampage searching.

_"_Alauda Arvensis_ has escaped!"_

_He groaned. _Make that five seconds._ Frantically, he peered around, looking for a second plan to conjure before him. Nothing. He bumped his head against the metal of the ship, grinding his teeth, his glare washed away by the depths of the ocean. He blinked. _Why didn't I think of that?_ He laughed bereft humour, rather darkly. The world would end its wars for the possession of me if I simply just drop dead. In an ocean at that, too, where my body can rest in peace. His lips curled into a smirk. _Perfect_._

_A window slammed open, glass shattering and dribbling into the ocean as a man's head popped through. "Hey," shouted he to those behind him, "it's outside!"_

"It"_, he snarled, mouth overflowing with disgust. _I'm human, you know_. He huffed. Fucking herbivores. He looked down at the man and did what he never in his entire lifetime ever think of doing: he stuck his tongue out. "Catch me if you can."_

_"Why, you little_—_"_

_The world seemed to stop, time dragging painfully slow, his heartbeat drumming in his ears as his eyelids drifted shut into an expression of peace. He kicked himself away from the ship, the metal indenting from the force of it, back bending backwards as the scenery became flipped, the shouts of horror muffled into nothing as the water devoured him eagerly, snapping a bone or two at impact. His breath was knocked out of him, blood oozing from his mouth mixing with the ocean_—_his broken ribs ripped through the flesh of his lungs. He sunk lower and lower, eyes snapping open in panic_—_he wanted to live to see the day when he was free and not a tool greedy herbivores could use to please their conquer and attainment of power. He cursed. _I don't want to die..!_ But his life was slipping through his fingers, the shadows of death invading his vision._

_Just as he believed he had crossed the border, streaks of the hues of autumn and a hand reaching out to him, grasping his wrist and pulling him close, engulfing him in warmth that was dissipating from his body, along with the sensation of water crawling down his face and air attacking him, rippling coughs from his throat, arms wrapping around his torso securely._

_"I finally found you, Kyouya."_

_He never heard such words, yet he was certain he would have been astounded to hear his name casually being drawled out by a voice of velvety smoothness_—_no one knew his name. All that ran through his mind was this:_

I've been caged again_._

_..._

_"How are his wounds, Shamal?"_

_Shamal clicked his tongue, brows knitted with annoyance. "Probably heal in two days or so at the rate he's healing. Geez, is he even human?" He narrowed his gaze, mouth folding into a downwards bow. "I nearly died, you know_—_he's a man! A man!" He threw his hands up. "How disgusting!"_

_"Yeah, yeah, I owe you one. Thanks." He threaded his hands through his blond locks, sighing when Shamal brushed past him while muttering darkly something about the horros of men. He smiled, walking into the room Shamal had exited from. Well, at least he agreed to do it without having to blackmail him again. Gently, he closed the door behind him, gaze immediately plastering to the form on the bed. He sauntered closer till he was impeded by the edge of the bed, watching the soft rise and fall of a chest thickly swabbed in white bandages. He inclined forth, bending at the waist, and ran his fingers through obsidian strands, noting with a grim line upon his lips the cool temperature of the skin. His other hand cupped a cheek, his thumb caressing the high cheekbone, the tips of his fingers brushing long, dark lashes. He couldn't help the crimson dusting across his face_—he's prettier than the rumors say._ His hand trailed lower, over soft, pink lips, tracing the predominant' collarbone, and stopping a little further to the left at the center of the chest. "Hibari Kyouya, huh?" He chuckled at a distant memory that surfaced. "They said you had no heart, but I can clearly feel it." He pressed his palm, the feeling of the lazy thump of a heart asserting his statement. He chuckled. "Tsuna was right."_

_Hibari stirred, a soft moan escaping his lips as his lids fluttered open, revealing irises hued dark cerulean. He blinked ever so slowly, recognition of the man before him settling in. "Cavallone 'Bucking Bronco' Dino, general under Sawada Tsunayoshi."_

Wow, his voice...is kinda deep. I didn't expect that. _"You got half of that right. The Cavallone is a separate Sector from the Vongola. I am the Head of the Cavallone."_

_Hibari stared at him with a blank expression. "You're an idiot."_

_He blinked at him, mouth ajar to the very slightest. How audacious. "Why is that?"_

_Fighting down the urge to roll his eyes, he replied, "You gave information that could potentially lead to your death."_

_Dino's lips curled into a blinding grin. "That's because my instinct told me you had no ill intent."_

_A shadow darkened the silver of his irises. The atmosphere grew heavy, almost constricting of breath, quickening Dino's pulse. "Don't be too sure of that."_

_He swallowed thickly, yet a gentle smile managed to grace his features. "There's a reason I assure is to your favour entirely and will assert when I say 'no ill intent'."_

_Opting to not answer, Hibari tilted his head to the side, his raven locks following to conceal his gaze. "Go away."_

_Dino sighed. "I'll return with some food later, then; you haven't eaten anything since yesterday, right?"_

_"I said to _go away_, herbivore, before I _bite you to death_."_

_It was a wonder to Dino how a death by biting sounded as if it was the most painful way of dying_—_he blamed it on the venom almost practically oozing around each syllable Hibari uttered. He didn't bother to hide his fear, stuttering his wishes of peaceful slumber for the skylark while slipping silently out of the room. Not five seconds later, however, he entered again, a broad smile plastered on his face. "By the way, if you are not asleep by then, Tsuna is going to stay here and watch over you the way he has been for the past few days_—_he wants to make sure what he saved is still alive, you know?" He laughed. "He won't listen even if I tell him you're okay. Try to convince him, will you? Tsuna hasn't gotten much rest lately, and Gokudera is making a huge fuss out of it."_

_..._

_The train's engines and the clocking against the metal of the railroad resonated through the shattered windows, pieces of glasses drifting away, twinkling under the sun. The cool metal of the barrel of a gun rested against his temple, streams of moisture crawling down his cheeks like an incessant pour of rain, teeth digging into a lower lip to keep at bay the sobs threatening to rise._

_Titian orbs stared in horror, brows knitting together as balance was becoming a hassle to maintain, brown, untamed locks ruffled further by the air, hand outstretched, fingertips grazing the soft skin of a clenched hand. "Kyouya, don't do this! You're free, damn it, free! You said you wanted to live_—_to experience life to its fullest_—_remember? Don't end it this way!"_

_He shook his head, raven strands dancing with the wind, lids clutching close, his clumped lashes smearing tears over his cheeks. "I can't...!"_

_The train vibrated harshly, nearly toppling him, teeth grinding. "I promised, didn't I?! I promised I would never let harm come your way ever again and show you the meaning to be alive_—_I kissed you so you wouldn't forget!"_

_An involuntary blush stained his cheeks at the memory of heates lips against his, gentle nips, and the sensual brush and intertwining of tongues. He shook his head slowly, a sob piercing through his throat. "I'm sorry...I'm truly sorry, Tsunayoshi." He pulled on the trigger of the gun._

_"_Kyouya_!"_

Bang_._

...

Startled, his body flung forth into a sitting position, cold sweat sticking the dark cloth of his dress shirt to every surface it on his torso. He groaned, a hand slidding across his forehead, knitting through obsidian locks and untangling the knots that had formed there. _What kind of dream was that..? _He huffed. _And why are the Herbivore's and my personality so off-character? I don't cry like a pathetic herbivore._

"Hibari-san?"

_"Kyouya, don't do this!"_

He shook his head, willing for the events his brain conjured in his nap to be stuffed away in the farthest corner of his mind. "What do you want, Herbivore?" The sleep that had yet to fade away was obvious in his voice.

Tsuna took the liberty of entering the room, his form shadowed by the veils of night. "Did I wake you? I'm sorry."

_How audacious of the Herbivore to walk in here without permission. _"No." He rubbed at his eyes with a wrist, his other hand rising to muffle a yawn. Dropping his hands to his lap, cringing at the humidity of his suit pants, he said, "I won't repeat myself" Nevertheless, he continued to reiterate, "What do you want?"

Although he was aware his expression could not be seen, Tsuna offered a meek smile. "You didn't come to dinner; I was wondering if you were alright." He furrowed his brows in concern, smile slipping. "I noticed you haven't been eating much ever since we embarked the cruise, Hibari-san; do you feel alright?"

The secretive nature within him resurfaced as he assured his was perfectly healthy and simply had no appetite. "Why should it be of your concern." Not a question, mind you, but rather a statement laced with slight aggravation.

He pucklered his lips temporarily. "Because I care for you, Hibari-san."

_"I promised, didn't I?!"_

_Curse that dream..._He moaned, creating soothing circles to will away the throbbing in his temples. "Just go away," uttered he, almost whispering. The world began to multiply and haze as he stood, the blur of darkness seeming to metamorphose into an abyss of black.

Tsuna watched as Hibari swayed on the spot, knees threatening to buckle under the skylark's weight. Then, just as Hibari began to sink to the floor, Tsuna rushed forth, catching Hibari by wrapping his arms around the latter's waist. Hibari's forehead collided with his, reminding Tsuna of their height difference, even if they were near replicas when compared from a distance. The second thing he was aware of was the the higher temperature of the skylark as heat was transferred past his brown locks and into his skin. The third—this made him as red as a basket overflowing with ripe strawberries—was the light grazing of the tips of their noses, their breaths clashing together as Hibari's mouth leaned dangerously close to his. Tsuna could count the number of curled-to-perfection, darker than black lashes Hibari sported with such alluring grace. He gulped. "H-Hi-Hibari-san..?" When Hibari's eyelids did not flutter open in the same manner as usual or in a similar way—even the smallest twitch of the brow would have been fine (not that Tsuna could see them by fault of their position, either way)—Tsuna began to panic, heart and mind racing a thousand miles per hour. _Oh, my god, what do I do?! And I'm stuck in such an awkward position that would certainly lead to presumptuous, unwanted thoughts if anyone sees us like this!_ He clutched his eyes closed, taking several inhales and exhaled to will away _the_ Hibari Kyouya and pretend this was all just a dream. Nevertheless, Hibari remained glued to his spot. He internally screamed a shriek of horror when the skylark slipped, the contact between that caused their lips to lock sending electricity _down there_. He groaned, face flushing deeper shades of scarlet. _Someone help me..!_

The snap of a camera resounded somewhere in the background, and Tsuna blanched, eyes widening to incredible lengths. _Curse this life!_ He swore, if he ever finds out who took the freedom to take that picture, the ocean will be tainted crimson with all of the blood of the one holding responsibility of it all—and he will make certain it will be a slow, torturous _massacre._


	7. Monster Tamer Tsuna & Marriage

So, so, truly sorry for the suck-ish-ly late update! Please excuse any and all grammar/spelling mistakes!

Hehe. It's so awesome to update on 5 May!

…

It was becoming increasingly harder to control the urge to not pry the skylark away, for the want of moving his lips against the other's to deepen the accidental kiss was a greater portion, especially when said other moaned softly while slipping closer and lower, effectively leaving a small aperture for Tsuna's tongue to venture in and explore and probe for those lovely erogenous spots—and that is exactly what Tsuna did.

He twirled his tongue around Hibari's, a warmth heating his cheeks when Hibari responded to his movements with a tentative lick and a fickle gasp. _Oh, god, I'm kissing him...whatever you do, don't kill me now—I'm enjoying this too much._ He paused his train of thought, giving a slight suck to the skylark's tongue that somehow managed to find its way into his mouth. _On second thought, kill me right after I'm done with this; Hibari-san will bite me to death when he wakes up. If he wakes up, that is._ He chuckled as he wrapped his arms around Hibari's lower waist tightly so as to create a sensual friction with their hips, hand not so innocently traveling to grope a firm buttock. _I think I know what Gokudera-kun was trying to say earlier. Kyouya is entirely drunk right now. _He blanched, pausing momentarily the tilt of the head to get a better angle. _Did I just call Hibari-san Kyouya?!_

Hibari began to shake as if his knees would crumble under his weight, breaking the kiss, a thread of saliva lathering his lower lip; his chest rose and fell rapidly, a sign his breath, along with the virginity of his lips, was stolen.

Tsuna heaved a heavy breath, discontented the kiss—his first aside from the pecks his mother and Chrome would sometimes give upon either cheek—was interrupted, mentally cursing the world for his misfortune. He lowered Hibari to the ground, gently laying him on the overly soft carpet. With an upwards quirk of the corners of the mouth, he brushed aside the raven strands that fell over the eyelids of Hibari, fingertips grazing and feeling the shape of delicate brows, watching in mild amusement as a frown came and went and long lashes fluttered open to reveal a pair of glazed eyes, irises tinted a beautiful cerulean.

"Sawada…?" mumbled Hibari as he reached out to grasp Tsuna's hand in his.

"Greetings from another world, Hibari-san." He chuckled, bringing Hibari's hand to press his lips over the knuckles. "Hungry yet?"

Hibari turned his head away, suddenly finding the crescent moon that peeked through the window interesting. "No."

Furrowing his brow, he said, "Certain? You haven't eaten much—no, _at all_ since the first day we came on the cruise, Kyouya." He palled. _Hii! I accidentally said his given name! I'll be _bitten to death_!_

As if Hibari's given name was the trigger that would set the hourglass onto its side, the sand that once seeped grain by grain halted its time, silence befalling as heavy as the veil of night. He blinked slowly, and his breath tripped over its windy feet in his throat at the surreal beauty that peered down at him: The moonlight was dancing its wonders over the skin of Tsuna, titian irises glowing an abnormal orange that cast long shadows of dark lashes over porcelain cheeks; those strands dyed in the brown hues of autumn catching a gold light upon them creating a cascade of rays of sun down shoulders and around a slender neck. Surely, if the tropical fruit thought Hibari was pretty, then no one had truly seen Sawada Tsunayoshi. A delicate frown knitted his brows, an unknown heat rising to ignite his features in crimson. "_My name…say it again._"

_English? And with no trace of an accent, too._ "Eh?" He could only stare with perplexity written across his features in a mirror of a child's doodles. "I...couldn't quite get that." He pursed his lips into a mild frown. "How 'bout Italian? You can speak Italian, right?" His question, though, fell upon deaf ears, for the skylark had drifted off to the peaceful dimension of slumber, where magical tunas lived in orange flames that thrived in a cerulean ocean. He sighed, sitting back on his calves, a whiff of a smile passing by like a gentle, summer breeze when he muttered, "Kyouya."

…

…"Tonight—hand me that cup of tea, will you?—tonight, the Cloud, our main obstruction of the core of the Vongola—only a teaspoon of sugar, the brown kind—ah, what was I saying? Oh, yes. The Vongola Cloud. Everyone heard of it, right? My ingenious plan…eh, what was it again?"

"The drugs mixed into the Cloud's drink that would deprive of strength and awareness and subject under sleepiness, sire, was a success—no one noticed."

"To go along with what Jonathan said, _Don_ Alexei, a discovery of the relationship between the Cloud and the Sky was made: they're in love. Surely, this will work to our advantage as well."

"Oh-ho, indeed, great discovery, Miriam." Alexei threaded a gloved hand through light red—pink, really, but his manly pride wouldn't allow anyone to point that out, much less for himself to do it—the light shimmering in his golden orbs as a chuckle—a strange sound of "kahuhu"—rippled from his throat; the sign another plan was brewing in the dark, corrupted section of his mind. "All right, listen carefully. This is how we'll go about it:

"At the half past second hour after noon, Jonathan"—he pointed with the tip of a silver spoon at the man sporting long strands of green draped down a slender shoulder directly in front of him—"you will disguise yourself as one of the crew of the ship and pretend to have an important message from the Cloud's—err…uncle; say the Hibari household in China or something has been attacked and they are on the losing side. That should rile the Cloud up perfectly. Lead him into the lowest level of the cruise, where the oil storage is, and we'll subdue him. Clear enough? Good.

"Then, Miriam and Cello, you go fetch the Sky while everyone else is fighting off the rest of the Guardians and the other members. Take precautions—there's a reason why that kid is the Sky."

Cello stood, the raven coat enclosed over his shoulders fluttering behind him along with a long ponytail of white, and strode on elegance and grace towards a window; a veil of indigo mist clouding around him. Twinkling crimson eyes looked to their left, where the _don_ was perched like an all-mighty king before his loyal knights. Glossy lips were set into a smile akin to a smirk. "An illusionist's illusion countered by another illusion has already lost its own perception."

Alexei blinked. _What's gotten into him?_ "What do you mean?" He narrowed his lids. "Has something occurred?"

Cello chuckled, startling Alexei with the foreign yet oddly familiar sound of it. "I wonder." The mist engulfed him and disappeared along with its master.

…

Yamamoto laughed, clutching his sides with arms crossed over his torso, tears spilling from the corners of his eyes uncontrollably. "Ha-Hayato, if Tsuna ever finds out—pfft!—he'll kill you!"

"I-idiot! The picture doesn't show any of the Tenth's heavenly body, only the putrid Hibari-bastard's!" A darker than red wine blush shaded his cheeks, brows knitting together into a furious frown at his continuation; hand clenching tighter and tighter on the silver electronic device with every passing "ha" Yamamoto gave. "To think the bastard is a kissing-maniac when drunk like you! He defiled my precious Tenth's purity and innocence!"

That only seemed to increase Yamamoto's roar of laughter so the latter was a mess upon the floor, the tears rolling down his cheeks absorbed by a section of the carpet; mouth releasing unknown vocabulary and splutters.

Of course, neither of the two was aware of the looming and brooding form—none other than Sawada Tsunayoshi just returned from a certain bird's room—near the end of the corridor, where the hallways of the dormitories and cafeteria intersected.

His eyebrow twitched along with the corner of his mouth, hand curling and uncurling so as to diminish the need to punch the living lights out of the first person he sees, titian irises glowing a deep orange of irritation. "Gokudera Hayato...hand that _fucking _camera _this instant_ before my gloves _suddenly burst into flames and blast you through a wall_!"

Rather startled (he gave a leap into the air), Gokudera turned to face his caller, aghast he was referred to by his full name bereft a lovely "kun" as the suffix. _The Tenth cursed…I never thought I'd see the day of it._ "B-but, Tenth, the Bastard deserves—"

Yamamoto had by then already slipped out of firing range, lips set into a thin line; not to contain his laughter but for the simple reason of keeping his scream from alarming those near of the horrible change of personality Vongola Decimo had undergone in a matter of seconds—_influence from the best, I guess?_

Tsuna's expression darkened several ominous shadows, thin brows drawing together. "If anything—and I mean _anything_, even if half a millionth of a millimeter of a strand of his hair is damaged—happens to Kyouya, I swear upon my ancestor's grave _I will bite you all to death_; and, yes, by 'bite to death'"—he narrows his eyelids—"I mean I will _beat the hell out of you_ with a blazing tonfa, whether Kyouya gives me permission to use it or not. _Is that clear?_"

"Totally clear!" The self-proclaimed-right-hand-but-in-denial-it's-self -proclaimed-man crumbled to his knees. _Good god, the Tenth called the Bastard by his first name…he called the Bastard by his first name! _With hands trembling about uncontrollably and an expression of pure fear, he extended the arm with the hand holding the offending camera, and Tsuna took the device, the brunet's scowl unrelenting. "T-tr-tru-truly sorry, Tenth!" he apologized with a deep bow, his forehead almost slamming against the floor with a dull thud.

A gust of flame devoured the unfortunate device, leaving behind a tiny mount of ashes, and Gokudera swore he would never, _ever _attempt to blackmail Hibari Kyouya again even if he was presented with a billion dollars and a status of King of Rome.

"Do that again," warned Tsuna with a trace of a pleased smirk, "and I can't promise your sanity to be intact."

"Yo, Lil' Bro!" called Dino from his place at the complete opposite of Man and Right of Man. "The Demon—err, that is…Reborn has some urgent matters to discuss with us. And by 'us', I mean you, me, Mukuro, and Kyouya—orders from the Greatest Hitman."

Gokudera, unlike his usual complaints of separation from Decimo, held his kneeled-bow position, mouth tightly sealed.

The dark aura dragging behind Tsuna dissipated faster than a bolt of lightning striking terrestrial grounds and was quickly replaced by a substance of glittery charm. "Kyou—eh, Hibari…-san is asleep. We shouldn't bother him; he seemed overly exhausted. I think the alcohol is the main cause of that along with the fact he hasn't been eaten anything," said he while stepping towards Dino, punctuating his last statement with a halt before the blond.

A troubled expression pulled Dino's casual smile downwards. "Reborn said to drag Kyouya over if we have to."

Obviously, Tsuna was not pleased with that—some remnants of the darkness the brunet concocted to perfection were wrapping their obsidian tentacles around the luminous flowers hovering in the silent background. _"Silent background"? Oh, right. It's nighttime._ He groaned mentally. _And Yamamoto and Gokudera-kun were being so loud; well, I was part of it, too…I wonder if we are vexing those sleeping (not that they'd get much sleep with the amount of noise we are making)._ Mindful, he dropped his tone to a whisper. "Dino-san, where are we convening?"

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask, but I guess it doesn't matter if we are going there either way. I did protest against it—I really did. Yet, as you know as well as I do how _lovely_ our tutor is, the suggestion phased right through him."

"What are you trying to say, Dino?"

"The meeting will be in Kyouya's room."

Tsuna couldn't find the strength to give his opposition to that—there was only so much darkness he could brew in one day. "What's it about? Some problem with another _famiglia _again?"

"According to Mukuro." Dino sighed, rubbing a temple. "I have a bad feeling about this all, Tsuna."

He gave a silent agreement. "Let's hope it'll turn out all right."

…

_A trail of sweat—like a glistening droplet of celestial rain—crawled its transparent essence down a toned chest and over abdominal grooves, halting its silent procession when a fingertip swept it away, blending it with lightly tanned skin; eliciting a gasping moan. Pale pink lips stretched into a smile, its charming glow reflected in irises dyed in the soft colours of browning crimson leaves; they parted to whisper gently, "Don't fall asleep before we start with the dessert."_

"_Sawada…let me rest." Slender hands traveled lower, engraving in his mind the perfect curves of Sawada's waist, a soft sigh slipping past parted lips, elongated canines showing off their pearly whiteness. Dark lashes fluttered, sleep beginning to cling its weight on lids tinted with a streak of crimson._

"_Your hands, Lord Hibarin—"_

"_Kyouya. I said to call me Kyouya."_

"Kyouya…Kyouya…? Dino-san, he's not—"

_His smile turned wry. "And I said to call me Tsuna. Or Tsunayoshi. Whatever suits your taste." Tsuna gave a heavy breath tinted into a ghostly white by the cool air, the omnipresent glow of energy hanging about his shoulders—instead of decreasing as if with resignation and depression—intensifying._

_Azure silver irises suddenly were scanning Tsuna's features, a sharp gleam scowling up. "Idiotic priest."_

_He made a mock of a flinch. "That hurt, you know." He chuckled as he leaned down to capture Hibarin's lips into a chaste kiss, strands of brown falling to tickle the lord's porcelain cheek; breathing in the silky yet spicy scent of cherries, tea, and—"Blood?" Rising to his elbows, he let his eyelids drop to a light glower. "I thought you said you stopped 'sucking others to death'."_

"_Oi_, Hibari, wake up alre—"

_Hibarin halted himself from rolling his eyes. "Herbivore"—his voice, a velvety baritone, was laced with aggravation—"you dare accuse me of breaching a promise?"_

_A brow rose with suspicious curiosity. "Then? What have you been doing?"_

_Curling into himself as he turned onto his side, obsidian locks moving along with the slow movements, he replied ambiguously, "Rokudou Mukuro."_

"_Rokudou Mukuro?" echoed Tsuna while moving to fall on his back on the space left on the mattress._

_Hibarin nodded despite knowing Tsuna couldn't see it. "A bellicose MH with a lust for blood."_

_Startled, the brunet sat up, the seemingly perpetual glow dissipating, draining the colour from his face; his eyes went wide. "A Monster Hunter?! Are you alright, Kyouya?"_

"Tsuna, he's not ans—"

_Hibarin sighed and reached out to grasp the priest's shoulder; he gave a sharp tug, and the next thing Tsuna knew was the suffocating pillow. "Just sleep, Tsunayoshi."_

"_But it's the morning…and don't ignore my question" was the muffled protest._

_He clicked his tongue and furrowed his brow. "I'm fine; the blood is not mine. Now, stop bothering me before I am tempted to bite you to death."_

"_I prefer 'suck to death'. Sounds dirtier." A blush crawled onto his cheeks, eyes drifting to the ceiling as his imagination began to run rampant and radiate illusory flowers and mellifluous sparkles. "Ahh, it's heaven!" cooed he. "Kyouya kneeled before me sucking my—" A punch landed on his jaw, effectively silencing him._

"_What kind of priest are you?" It was an alarmingly loud tone, and, though the lord's skin was much too pale to be called human or dead, Tsuna could discern a faint blush strewn across that handsomely beautiful face._

_Tsuna rubbed at the spot of skin with the inception of the different shades of purple and black, chuckling and smiling despite the pain. "The kind that loves you, of course!"_

_Hibarin huffed, pretending his pink blush had not turned a deep crimson. "What happened to being a Monster Tamer? Devoured by a zombie, perhaps?"_

"_No, Yamamoto is much too kind to ever even consider that." He grinned. "What happened, you see, was I met this mesmerizing person some years ago and fell head over heels in love at first sight. But the social world is cruel, so I couldn't approach him unless I had some sort of status—a peasant and a lord don't mingle, even if said peasant has the rare ability to tame the supernatural. Therefore—"_

"_You became a priest to win this lord's heart and found out the lord was a vampire when you caught him feeding from some half-dead herbivore." He tilted his head towards Tsuna, cerulean eyes melting their annoyed intensity, giving Tsuna a glimpse of golden, dragon-like irises. "The vampire, in the end, was tamed by you when you stole his heart and replaced it with an emotion thought to be impossible to befall a creature of the Night."_

_He chuckled, brushing obsidian locks away from to place a peck on the lord's forehead. "I love you, too, Kyou—_

"—ya!"

His eyelids flew open, chest heaving up and down rapidly to match his shortened breaths. Cool sweat plastered his bangs to his forehead, some strands sticking out at random directions. His vision swam, doubling and tripling till it came to a hazy standstill; the image of Sawada Tsunayoshi looming over him slowly settling in his mind, and, before he could think twice on his words, he mumbled, "Tsunayoshi?"

Tsuna closed his eyes as he sighed in relief. "I'm so glad you're okay." He opened his lids, revealing titian eyes glazed with unshed tears. "How are you feeling?"

Mukuro stepped into view, expression devoid of its usual humour, arms crossed over his chest. "There's no time for that, Vongola—we need to get both of you off this cruise."

"Mukuro's right," said Reborn from his leaning position on the wall, startling Tsuna with his many-octaves-lower-than-an-infant voice. He pushed himself away from the wall, his features shadowed by the fedora perched on his head. "But, before that, there is one thing of the upmost importance that must be done."

Dino slid his hands over his face, yanking at his golden locks as he did so. "God, I can't believe you're assigning me for this…it's torture, you know." He sniffled. "My heart…has been shattered into countless fragments…" He uncovered his face, tears flowing freely down his cheeks. "Tsuna," he wailed, "take good care of Kyouya…_to the extreme._"

"Hold on a second!" Tsuna sprang to his feet, the tails of his black suit coat snapping behind him. He gestured at his dressing: shoes lustier than Reborn's, a dark grey vest settled over a pristine, button-up shirt and under a raven tailcoat with matching pants; the emblem of the Vongola coat of arms pinned to his breast pocket, his hair gathered into a ponytail that ran down his shoulder. "Why in the _flames of hell_ am I dressed like this?" He pointed at Hibari. "And why is Kyouya dressed in a _fucking wedding dress_?" True enough, a milky dress of delicate lace hugged the skylark's frame, giving him curves he did not have; a dark violet chrysanthemum—its curling petals bending towards the center to form a circular mound—was pinned to his hair. "And what's with the flower?"

"Chrysanthemums are Japan's imperial flower. Hibari is royalty, if you didn't know" was the annoyed response from Reborn.

Tsuna groaned. "Okay, but that doesn't explain why we are dressed like this and why Dino sounds like he is sending us off to our honeymoon or something."

That devilish smirk—the one Tsuna knew was _never_ a good sign—graced his lips. "Bingo, Dame-Tsuna." He flicked his fedora up, allowing for the brunet to stare into irises of a darker than black hue. "This is your wedding, and we"—he swept his arm out to refer to Mukuro and Dino—"are the witnesses." He turned to stare at Mukuro. "Help Hibari up, will you?"

His jaw slackened, falling agape with shock, a blush staining his face red; watching distractedly Mukuro do as told. Surprisingly, Hibari gave no complaints or any show of struggle and merely wobbled towards Dino, where the latter stood upon an altar of some sort with a small book in hand pressed against his chest.

Reborn sauntered towards Tsuna and extended his elbow for Tsuna to take, pleased when his student took it obediently. "'Tis rather informal—"

_No kidding…_

"—but it'll do."

It was when Reborn took a step forth that the true realization of the events playing before him befell him: Hibari, in all of his graceful beauty, stood half-way towards—_shouldn't I be up there?_—him in the dress Tsuna had dreamed time and time again in his younger days his perfect bride would wear; the scenery suddenly not a uselessly grand bedroom but the inside of a church ornamented with bronze and gold, the soft lighting of thousands of candles radiating the mellifluous scent of _sakura_ as a symphony played in the background. There were not the hundreds of faces Tsuna wished there to be in such an occasion, but three faces would do for now. "_Now". Yes, now. Tonight. I am marrying Kyouya…Hibari Kyouya, Head Prefect of every inch making up precious Namimo—_

Dino cleared his throat, effectively catching Tsuna's attention. The book held in his hand, Tsuna could now see as the blond flipped the cover and past several pages, had the Vongola coat of arms imbedded in it. His voice resounded in the illusory church, somehow gaining an authority held only by one of great status: "Sawada "Tsuna" Tsunayoshi, Vongola Decimo, and Hibari Kyouya, Vongola Cloud Guardian, tonight—the twelfth of January—I hereby declare you bonded by the ties of marriage stronger than the omnipotence of Death, forever and ever and all of eternity. Betrayal's only solution is execution—"

_Uwah, that totally sounds like Vongola…_

"—May a kiss become the seal." Dino bowed as Tsuna gulped while turning to Hibari.

"I accept." Tsuna tentatively reached out, about to grasp Hibari's hand when, suddenly, he was pulled forth so his lips were able to be captured into a deep, French kiss.

Hibari released his lips, muttering under his breath an "I accept", a darker than wine blush colouring his cheeks vividly. His hands were on Tsuna's arms, squeezing impossibly tightly, eyelids narrowing to dangerous levels. "Speak of this to anyone—"

_Oh, god, here it comes again…_

"_And I'll bite you to death._"

…

_Tanjoubi omedetou, _Hibari-san!


	8. Honeymoon Troubles

One note before beginning: "kumorizora" means "cloudy sky". Also, please excuse grammar/spelling mistakes.

…

The blue of the sky as night engaged forth, tangling its raven branches through and about the silver of the moon; stars vibrating their precious luster of unwavering emotions as they dust softly across the great vastness that embraces all; violet flaring as the last of rays of sun settled beyond the horizon, over impermeable peaks of confining mountains. _Yes,_ Tsuna told himself with an assertive nod as he peered into azure orbs, _that describes Kyouya's eyes perfectly_.

A delicate, obsidian brow rose, concealing behind equally dark fringes. "Why stare like so, Tsunayoshi?"

A warm smile motioned its way to light his titian eyes with orange mirth—"Tsunayoshi"…yes, "Tsunayoshi". The way it rolled off so perfectly sensually from the skylark's tongue had wrecking shivers crawling up his back. Tsuna swore he was plunged into heaven every time he heard it. Therefore, he made every single moment of these past few days of his life an alone-time—not an easy task when the countless maids and valets were flocking around them constantly to get a peek of the "handsome _Kumorizora_" (as one of the servants had officially nicknamed them by referring to their relationship)—with Hibari, for the latter would only utter it when no one else was present. Why? That was one of the mysteries Tsuna will perhaps never solve. Leaning forth to rest his chin on his palm, he chuckled, the light vibrations passing through his wrist. "Kyouya's eyes are beautiful; that's why." He praised himself when a blush heated the skylark's porcelain cheeks—it had become a daily challenge to draw even the slightest colouring of pink on the colloquially stoic Hibari.

In a successful attempt at erasing his embarrassment, he crossed his arms over his chest, huffing with a furrow of the brows; his breath condensing into pale ghosts before him. "Will you tell me now, Sawada?"

The usage of his last name, Tsuna knew, was a statement to delve into business. "Tell you what, Hibari?" He was risking his neck along with whatever was left of his life by mocking-but-not-quite-mocking; he knew that, but he loved stirring up the skylark too much to stop anytime soon.

Eyelids streaked in an intricate pattern of purplish silver lowered over those mesmerizing eyes, a sharp glint igniting a spark of fear, especially when the already deep voice subdued an octave to almost sneer the only warning before a spiked tonfa made a dashing appearance: "Herbivore." Despite the cold tone, however, there was bereft emotion, boredom being the foolhardy approacher, allowing for Tsuna to safely presume no physical pain would be inflicted.

Ignoring the want to pull at Hibari's strings of self-restraint, Tsuna sighed. "I'm not quite clear on the details, but, according to the information Mukuro got by cosplaying as one of the members, a rivaling _famiglia_ that was purposefully in the cruise was planning on killing you to get to me to kill me to then destroy the entire Vongola. They had already drugged what you were drinking the afternoon of the day we left—scary how we never noticed anything." He clenched his fists around the cotton fabric of his white scarf, titian orbs increasing its orange intensity—he swore if he ever got the chance to lay his hands, hands flaming in a deep orange, on the man behind the ordeal that caused _his_ skylark's health to deplete enough to a state of feverish helplessness.

_Those weird dreams, then, were caused by whatever sort of drug they used._ He scowled at the thought of being so easily deceived; the funky taste of the drink had never aroused as suspicious since not once before had he tasted the alcoholic sort (aside from that one time several years ago he most definitely does _not_ want to recall). "So, we were hastily married and sent off on a small boat till a day-and-a-half's distance away we were picked up by a helicopter that brought us to the Main Estate."

Tsuna laughed. "I was more surprised when you suddenly pulled me in to kiss me at the supposable altar." Nevertheless, he had enjoyed it more—it was, after all, the first kiss Hibari had ever initiated. He clung to the hope that it won't be the last. _And sex. I need to have proper sex with Kyouya._ He mentally drooled at the image his mind conjured of a moaning skylark under him as he thrust repeatedly int—

Hibari reached behind him, grasped the first thing that came into a contact with his hand, and swept said object down on the brunet's fluff of hair, the latter yelping in startled pain. "I said not to speak of that to anyone, Sawada Tsunayoshi."

Much too used to abusive pain thanks to a certain, _lovely_ tutor, the brunet chuckled at the second blush of the day he managed to conjure. "Oh, by the way"—he raised a hand to point at his eye, referring to the shade of colour tainting the skylark's eyelids—"that really suits you. Mukuro again?" _I need to put up a tracking device and alert system on Mukuro so I know whenever he is within a ten-mile radius from Kyouya._

The compliment only served to deepen the crimson upon his cheeks as he peered anywhere but at Tsuna. "_Carnevale di Venezia_" was the ambiguous explanation while futilely attempting to hide his blush behind the warmth of the dark grey scarf wrapped about his neck.

"Mukuro wants to take you for the carnival, right?"

Hibari did not miss the jealousy that flashed briefly through the brunet's eyes. "No, the Infant. The first Cloud apparently was raised there."

Raising a curious brow, "To investigate something you are going there?"

"The Pineapple Herbivore is."

_This is…confusing. _"So, then, why are you—?"

"Entertainment."

A second brow rose. "Entertainment?"

"Entertainment," asserted Hibari with the air of one whom certainly does _not_ harbor entertainment for his current situation. "You'll see."

Tsuna had an instinct he most definitely did not want to see. To distract himself from such thoughts, "Venice, huh? I heard the Vongola's influence there acts mainly as _mascherari_." Titian irises twinkled with delight, a charming smile curling roseate lips. "You know, we should go there together sometime in the near future, like a little vacation or something. We should go during the carnival, too, and have lots of fun and stuff." "Stuff", of course, to Tsuna's mind, meant the sexual kind of stuff.

"As a honeymoon?" muttered he under his breath, too embarrassed to raise his voice any further, hiding the crimson that crawled onto his features as best as his fringes allowed by tilting his head forth.

"Hm? Did you say something, Kyouya?"

…_Does the herbivore not remember?_ He gritted his teeth, brows furrowing in mild rage as he stood up, ignoring the moisture that stung his eyes. Walking away towards one of the many entrances of the Vongola Estate, "Nothing."

"Kyouya?" Tsuna raised an eyebrow, worry and confusion mixing as they are shoved down his throat to constrict his chest painfully. _Did I say something wrong?_ his mind wondered as he followed Hibari back inside, gaze set on the skylark's almost unperceptively quivering shoulders.

…

"The Center wants to see you this upcoming morrow, _Don _Alouet."

Alouet halted his hand from reaching for the glass vial innocently lustering under the radiance of the sun to glance from the corner of his eye at the man. His gaze hardened, annoyance managing to seep into his throat. "No."

Nervous sweat glided down the surface of his tanned skin as Alouet pivoted around to face him. He twisted his garments, compressing the red silk patterned with golden thread in his trembling grasp. "N-no?" echoed the man. _Ugh…why am I stuck doing such a role? This person is too scary!_

"No," he reiterated, voice dipping an octave lower, crossing his arms over his chest. Patience and dealing with stuttering idiots had never been his forte.

Swallowing thickly the lump obstructing his train of thought, "I…ah, that is…I-umm-can't—"

"—accept my answer?" Eyelids streaked with intricate swirls of purplish silver lowered dangerously over cerulean irises, soft roseate lips curling downwards. Alouet reached behind himself, under a coat as equally dark as his hair, fingertips grazing across the cool metal of a weapon secured to his belt. "Scram. Before I am tempted to rip your face off." He scrunched his face ever so slightly. _"Bite to death" sounds better…_

Noticing the familiar, threatening stance, the man wasted no time in exiting the room while shrieking his manliness away, jumbles of words tumbling out of his mouth in a haste to apologize—no way was he going to suffer to wrath of a tonfa to deliver a message and give some persuasion. _That'd be suicide!_

Huffing, Alouet ran his fingers through his raven locks. _Weaklings_. He turned around and extended his arm to grasp the glass vial when the window clicked open, swinging inwards to the side; a gust of wind terminating the candlelight.

A silhouette emerged behind the fluttering curtains to unveil the owner's physique: slender yet muscular frame (much like Alouet) clad by clothes darker than black, a great contrast to the long strands as white as snow gathered into a ponytail that draped down a shoulder and creamy skin that complimented emerald irises. A perpetual smirk greeted Alouet, the air sprinkling intense sparks of unnamed emotions that danced in both pairs of eyes. "Still refusing to see the Center, I see."

Retaliating with a smirk of his own, "Trespassing private territory again, I see, Avelo."

Avelo chuckled, a soft melody that sang a calming symphony in Alouet's ears. "No need to call me that when we are alone, Kyouya."

"_Cut_! Cut; cut; cut!" Rising to her feet, "Sawada-san, it's not 'Kyouya'; it's 'Ĉielo'."

Tsuna groaned, sliding a hand over his face in distress as he tugged at his currently-dyed hair. "Is this necessary? I mean, why don't you leave the acting business to those whom are actually talented at it?" His lashes fluttered, and he rubbed at his eyes with the heel of his palms. "And these contacts are irritating my eyes."

"Because"—she dropped her expression to a reprimanding scowl—"not many know of the Esperanto language." _True, but that is not the reason at all why we are filming._

"Herbivore," growled Hibari from a step behind Tsuna, piercing gaze intending to intimidate, "the only things related to Esperanto in the entire script are 'Avelo' and 'Ĉielo'."

She averted her gaze. "W-well, that certainly is true…" She fidgeted under the azure silver gaze, a crimson blush rising to warm her cheeks when she caught sight of Tsuna replicating the skylark's glare. _So hot and sexy when the Boss has such a serious expression…so cute and sexy when the Cloud blushes whenever his given name is uttered by the Sky. _

Hibari huffed. "I have no business here, then." He pivoted on his heels and proceeded to stride out with Tsuna—"Ah, Kyouya, wait for me!"—right at his side, the way Hibari had found himself situated almost every hour of the day and into the throngs of night.

And, just like that, the acting career (more like the maids wanting to make their BL fantasies of the Cloud and Sky true and capture it on tape) encouraged by Reborn and Mukuro (there was no way Reborn was going to miss out on anything of his student's life; Mukuro had questionably moral intentions which shall not be revealed for the sake of the reader's sanity) came to an end rather quickly. "They were so good at it, too…"

There was one minor problem that remained: "…Kyouya, do you know how to take off this dye?"

"No."

…

Life went on in that pattern for several months into the future—days when there was nothing better to do than laze around and drink tea and others that were completely out of the normal, such as the instance when Tsuna and Hibari were persuaded (read: forced) to be the main roles in a Vongola-version, Boy Love drama—with no complaints from either spouse. No complaints, that is, until a crucial side of their marriage was brought up by no other than the brunet's self-proclaimed-right-hand man during a unilateral discussion of the events that occurred after the married couple were sent off in their lone voyage across the Yellow Sea:

"…so, then, the Baseball-idiot and I defeated the Sun and Lightning of the other _famiglia_ respectively, and, with that, the only one left was the boss"—he clicked his tongue—"whom that Pineapple defeated as easily as catching a feather. After that—Tenth, are you still awake?"

His chin slipped from his palm, startling him awake. "Huh?" He blinked several times, moisture clinging to his long lashes as he stifled a yawn with the back of his hand. "Yeah, yeah, I'm still awake."

Yamamoto mimicked Tsuna's yawn. "Haya—Gokudera, why don't we go off to sleep now? We're already nodding away." He stood, motioning with a cock of the head for the silveret to follow him out.

Reluctantly, Gokudera stood, but, just as he was about to take his first step out of the Sky's bedroom, a thought struck him. "Tenth, I've been meaning to ask this: where did you go for your honeymoon with the Tonf—Hibari-san?"

Rubbing at an eye with his wrist, "Eh? Honeymoon?" _Honeymoon…? Now that I think on it, we haven't…Wait. We haven't gone on our honeymoon yet?!_ He sprung the couch, slumber suddenly running off to pester another being. "That's why Kyouya gets in such a foul mood whenever I or someone else mentions going on a vacation!" He slapped himself multiple times on either cheek. "How could I have ever forgotten?!" He sprinted away, shouting from the top of his lungs down the corridor for Hibari to wake up while simultaneously apologizing for his unforgivable memory and stupidity, cursing further at his _dame_-ness when he tangled his feet and managed to fall face-first on the marbled floor, an act Tsuna can retell time and time again how much _it fucking hurts_. Of course, by fault of the entire ruckus he had been brewing at an ungodly hour at night, he accidentally awakened the Dem—err…Reborn.

"What the _hell_ are you doing now, idiotic student?" For emphasis on his dislike of being awakened so rudely, his eyebrow twitched along with his hand, the latter part of his body wanting nothing more than shoot a bullet at his student where it hurt most.

Tsuna gulped, sweat rolling down the side of his face. Laughing nervously, "N-nothing…"

A gun was cocked, aimed specifically at the spot of skin between Tsuna's brows. "If you are so desperate for a honeymoon"—Tsuna flinched—"why not go on a pending mission I have for you in the U.S. of A.? Complete it with your lover, thing that calls itself Vongola Decimo; I'm sure Hibari will enjoy the thrill of some good opponents."

Soft humming resounded from the darkened section of the corridor. "Depends on the mission." Polished shoes clacked against the cold floors, the beautiful complexity better known as Hibari Kyouya gracing the light with his presence, hands buried in the pockets of black suit's pants; the metallic chain connected from one pocket to another of a dark grey vest of a concealed watch clinking gently. A smirk curled his lips as he peered down at Tsuna (the brunet had yet to pick himself up from his sitting position on the floor). "Ya, Tsunayoshi."

Pink dusted across his cheeks—_Kyouya is too handsome for his own good._ "B-beauteous night, Kyouya." He peered through his lashes at Hibari then to the ground, biting on his lower lip. "U-umm…"

"Save it for later, Sawada Tsunayoshi. I'll consider forgiving you if I enjoy myself in this mission." Despite his cold and harsh tone, he shivered, the tingles numbing his fingers and robbing him of breath; causing his heart to skip a beat, the erratic _thump-thump_ that followed so loud in his ears he feared those near could hear it in the same clarity as the soothing vibrations of a violin—it should be a crime for his name to be uttered with so much emotion…so much passion. Hibari found he could no longer imagine life without Sawada Tsunayoshi, the Vongola Decimo and Sky Guardian. His husband. _"My husband"…_It was strangely possessive in an entirely alluring way, and, despite there being a bond that tied him with expectations of upmost loyalty and under the direct rule of one he deemed to have a strong yet weaker power, he wouldn't do anything to change it—he'd rather die with "Pathetic Herbivore" engraved on his forehead in gigantic, bold letters.

"Oh, so you're up for it?"

"As I said, it depends on the mission, Infant."

"Obliterate a traitor's business while expanding Vongola influence in the U.S." Reborn tapped his cheekbone in amusement when Tsuna's expression became aghast. "Not an easy task at all that could take from a few months to several years to complete perfectly. The traitor and his current subordinates are no weaklings either, so the prospect of returning with your lives is one percent to zero."

Tsuna opened his mouth to give him full opposition to it, but Hibari beat him to it. "We'll do it." The smirk that quirked further was much like the scythe of a god of death decapitating Tsuna's life, any and all protests he had metamorphosed into a blank endless berth that only allowed for a reluctant "alright" to escape his lips.

_I am…so going to die. Maman, please, take good care of Kyouya in my stead…_

While Tsuna dreaded the end of the world, Hibari saw it as the inception of one. However, now that he looked back, it all began with that Sunday all those months ago, the first time his dutiful schedule had been destroyed without any remorse or hesitation by no one other than the man he eventually married; creating a domino-effect: the days following that suffered the same fate, and it had irked Hibari to no end to see his stable life being thrown into the raging winds of a mesmerizing cyclone. But now…now, as he peered into titian depths, he would give anything to be seen (or, most preferably, nearly) in his naked glory—anything to wreck his schedule all over again.


	9. Mid-Air Kiss

Reborn clasped his hands, a devious smile igniting a bright glint of sadistic mirth in his obsidian irises. "Alright, I'll give you an oral brief, so listen carefully." He pointedly looked down at Tsuna.

Tsuna muttered under his breath about the unfairness of life and Spartan tutors, lips puckering into a pout.

"Philipp Z. Powell started out as a low ranking member in the English Branch and quickly made his way through higher positions till it was decided to be made a low ranking general here, directly under the supervision of Nono. Then, not six months after on April seventeen, he was caught red handed in the basement, where all of the classified documents are kept, looking for information on how to destroy the Vongola rings. The day before the arrangements for sending him to the Vendice—April twenty—he escaped, destroying all traces of himself ever even existing.

"Several years later (meaning the year before last ago), a man named Ian Cooper—a near replica of Powell besides the eye and hair colour—began Cy-Tech, a company specializing in cyber security and technology that strangely and quickly became the best one in the United States.

"A few years after—June second—a man (whose identity we have yet to fully uncover) nicknamed as 'the Barter' and suspected of being one of the higher-ups in a drug and weaponry cartel was seen dinning at Cooper's office. Photographs of them exchanging letter packages were captured.

"The mission is this: find out the identity of the Barter and his connection with Cooper; obliterate the drug cartel the Barter is from, but imprison as many members of the cartel as possible for questioning so we can get to other cartels and destroy those as well; infiltrate Cy-Tech, kill Cooper, and decimate all buildings of the company; and, lastly"—he tilted his omnipresent fedora to cast a shadow over his eyes, concealing his expression—"return alive. No matter what."

Whatever colour left on Tsuna was entirely gone, leaving behind a shell of transparency—Vongola Decimo died before even starting the mission. He died, that is, until he was revived by a Lean-turned-bat colliding with his head. Standing while rubbing soothing circles on the bump already forming on his head, "Geez, what was that for?!"

Reborn flicked his fedora up, smirk slipping into its proper place once more. "I already booked your flight and made someone pack your stuff—tonight you leave."

Tsuna promptly died again.

…

A groan oozed past his throat, body sagging down the overly soft chair. He rubbed at his reddened eyes as he took a gander at the darkened world outside the small window, watching in silent fascination when mists of clouds veiled the view. Twisting around so as to find a better position, a mumble of "I can't sleep" shadowing the air about him to depict annoyance, he childishly kicked at the chair before him; not a second later, a pillow smacked onto his face, a predicted threat of gory death by biting following after. He chuckled softly, mindful of the woman snoring two seats away. "Can't sleep?"

"Not with you constantly molesting my chair."

Puckering his lips, "Why not sit here, Kyouya? The seat next to me is empty, you know." A flash of black was all Tsuna was aware of in his slumber-deprived state, which in fault startled him with a rather unmanly shriek when, upon turning to see the source of the flash, cerulean irises were set into a scowl, a delicate furrow of the brow speaking of the extreme aggravation the owner was currently under.

Several heads turned back to stare at Tsuna. "Shut up!" one hissed.

Laughing awkwardly, "S-sorry." Sheepishly, he turned his titian stare to Hibari, expecting to find the latter's scowl to be perforating through his skull, only to discover the skylark had embraced the warmth of sleep; lips ajar to welcome and repel the gentle flow of air, raven locks strewn about on the pillow the skylark had thrown earlier, perfectly curled, long lashes casting a shadow on porcelain skin. Tsuna leaned closer, feeling the slumber transmitting in relaxing waves from Hibari beginning to weigh down on his vision, as he raised a hand to brush aside fluffy blackness; the recess in a far corner of his mind mulling on the natural hues—natural yet seemed to be purposefully painted—streaking Hibari's lids. His dimming vision wondered to roseate lips and, with bereft better thought, pressed his own lips on them. Like a magic spell, he slumped against Hibari, consciousness lost.

Well, he would have lost consciousness had it not been for the plane rocking, startling all passengers awake with its fierceness. Immediately, a whisper in his gut sprung to life that he then murmured to Hibari, gaze hardening with a mimic of the latter's previous frown, "This is no ordinary shake of the wind." He closed his eyes, focusing his sixth sense towards his surroundings:

There were three drumming beats, the first of which he identified as his heart, another one clear and close, and the last erratic and too far to discern the location of. His frown deepened. _There should be a cacophony of the hundreds of passengers in the plane, not such deafening silence. For this to be possible, this must be an illusion, but these things…_His mind reached out, imaginary tentacles of orange flame grasping every surface. _It's all real._ Jagging his elbow at Hibari's side, "Kyouya"—he motioned swiftly (too fast for the untrained eye to catch) at their surroundings—"this…these are pupp—" A finger flew to Tsuna's lips, shushing the brunet's words. Wondering what his Cloud was up to, he peeked from the corner of his eye to see the skylark's eyes closed and head tilted at a certain angle as if listening for sounds, so still and silent Tsuna would have missed the skylark's presence had he not been peering right at Hibari.

Hibari's finger upon his lip retreated as he stood; a flash of silver already flung across the plane with such strength the air was cut in two. The tonfa collided against the wall, indenting the metal and causing a window nearby to crack.

Sparks of indigo mist clouded her form, slowly enveloping her further till her figure was barely able to be seen. "How did you—" Nonetheless, despite her baffling expression, she knew it would have been impossible to deceive Sawada and Hibari—_they are Vongola, after all._

Voice colder than ice with a deep narrowing of the brows and eyes that spoke of high levels of annoyance, he said, "Your mistake, herbivore, was using those despicable illusions."

Then, in a flare of blinding indigo, the woman dissipated into thin air quite literally; Tsuna was instantly aware the third heartbeat was no longer there as well.

"Sawada," began Hibari, but a sudden side- and downwards shift of the aircraft had them stumbling to gain their balance, one thought racing through their minds: _the plane is going to crash._

Then, in a flurry of clothes and limbs along with smears of orange, after a destructive explosion on a wall, protective arms enclosed around the Cloud—one about his waist and the other resting a shielding hand on a head of black—Tsuna pushed their weight through the hole he created, the cold winds of Mount Everest's high altitudes pinched at skin. Feeling gravity work its magic, the hand threaded about raven locks faced its palm at the Earth's surface, a tongue of fire commencing its harmonizing life once more.

Tsuna's arm shook with strain, the light vibrations doing wonders to Hibari's back. "Eh, Kyouya, mind wrapping your arms around my neck? I can't hold you up like this." Adrenaline still raced through his veins, his heart _doki-doki_-ing so quickly he had a mild fear it would leap out from his chest. He inspected Hibari's visage for any sort of nicks that may have blemished the alluring and beautiful complexion; he found slight jealousy and annoyance the skylark seemed unfazed.

Smirk curling his lips in a playful manner, glancing from titian irises back to rose lips to flutter lashes ever so slightly, he draped his arms lazily around Tsuna's neck; enticing the other to close the distance between them. Distractedly, he watched the scatters of stars dim and flare, the crescent moon like a celestial crown decorating fluffs of brown. "I demand a kiss," he returned, as if casually ordering for a glass of water.

Tsuna was too eager to comply.

…

Hibari scowled, the narrowing of his lids increasing the intensity of the glint in his azure silver irises. He peered up through his long lashes at the blazing sun, his arms crossed over his chest, and the sun peered down at him with the same intense glare, heating his black suit further as sweat trickled down his slender back and was absorbed by his purple dress shirt. His so carefully developed patience was running dangerously low. How long had they been here? He raised a hand to wipe away the sweat beading on his temple, his damp hair sticking up at random angles when he snaked his fingers through the raven locks. _Wherever _this_ is supposed to be._

Tsuna shifted uncomfortably under the clothes plastered to his skin by fault of the excretion of bodily fluids. He sighed, pulling at his tie to loosen it and groaning when a slight throbbing in his legs began to make itself known. How did they get in the middle of a barren desert? He sighed for the umpteenth time, reliving the events from several hours ago for the sole reason of boredom dragging its weight on his mind:

_They swam to shore, Hibari ahead by several meters and showing no sign of fatigue even after thirty nonstop minutes, Tsuna panting and dragging his arms back and forth in an ungraceful manner—his legs stopped working a long time ago. When the shore was right under Tsuna's toes, it felt like bliss. _Land! Oh, lovely, lovely land!_ said he to himself as he promptly dropped dead on the sand, only to rise with a yelp, shrieking, "It's hot!"_

_Hibari couldn't stop himself from rolling his eyes at the brunet's antics. "Stop playing around, Sawada Tsunayoshi."_

Hibari perused his surroundings, straining his vision beyond the small hills obstructing his vision. There was a road—one with countless cracks and holes telling of its unused state—a few-minutes' walking distance beyond the hills, perhaps leading to a rural town. "There's a road yonder not quite far away."

"_Y-yonder"? Kyouya's idiom is rather…archaic._ "There is?" He followed Hibari's gaze. "I don't see anything besides those hills and some sort of…sand? That's sand, right?"

"Yes, Tsunayoshi; upon a desert we stumbled." Not giving a warning for Tsuna to follow him, he proceeded on, unwavering gaze set on the road dancing with heat waves. But it was not needed, it seemed, for Tsuna jogged to catch up after padding and sweeping away the grains of sand that still stuck to the pants of his suit from their earlier swim, giving a grin rivaling that of Yamamoto's once he reached the skylark, arms behind his back to lace his fingers together. Perhaps Hibari hit his head somewhere under that sea: strange pink flowers and twinkles sprouting from the brunet as the latter skipped along his side, that charming smile perpetually gracing those luscious lips as a hum Hibari knew the brunet picked up from a certain Horse filled the silence. Hibari didn't know why Tsuna only showed such a childish side to him, a great contrast to the calm and calculative side of Vongola Decimo once the inception of a battle began. He sighed, somehow feeling as though the cheerful nature of Sawada was sucking his exponential energy. "What are you so happy about?" inquired he, curiosity raising a brow when that smile widened to show off pearly white teeth.

"I get to spend more time with you." He laughed, digressing from the conversation: "You should have seen Mukuro the other day when he was being yelled at by Chrome for infiltrating an enemy's base without informing anyone." He clutched his stomach at the shocked and simultaneously irritated expression of Mukuro and an irate Chrome that came to his mind vividly, laughing. "Hilarious!"

Somewhere on the outskirts of the Tien Shan Mountains, near the border of China, Mukuro sneezed.

"It'd be better if the timid Herbivore beat up the Pineapple."

Tsuna laughed uneasily, scratching the nape of his neck. "I thought your revenge was already resolved and no longer existent?"

Nodding, "Doesn't mean the Pineapple is any less vexing." There was an air of finality to his sentence, meaning his patience with useless talking was diminished, so Tsuna left the conversation at that, allowing for the silence that was always effective to smooth down the ruffled feathers of the skylark to settle in.

Not twenty-seven minutes later, however, Hibari halted abruptly, his features darkening along each passing second. "The passports and credit cards…do you have them?"

With a horror-filled widening of the eyes, Tsuna padded down every pocket littering his body. He blanched. "I don't have them! I left them in the luggage...which is probably destroyed. _Fuck._"

"Language," warned Hibari. He heaved a groaned sigh, threading his fingers through his locks. "We're stuck in the U.S. of A., Tsunayoshi; _fucking stuck._"

"Hypocritical, Kyouya."

"Hypocrisy should be of your least concern, Herbivore." He probed around in the pockets of his jacket and vest; when his fingers brushed over something cool and smoothly rectangular, he announced, "All I have are the few savings in an old account, but they are not enough to last more than a week, hotel days and nights included in the equation."

Tsuna immediately brightened at that piece of information. "I think I still have a few debit cards I received as presents from the Bovino for caring for Lambo. Luckily, they made the mistake of making them for an American account instead of an Italian one. Oh, and I have several hundred dollars in my pocket Gokudera-kun gave me as a 'just in case'." He chuckled. "I think he jinxed us." He smiled at a thought that conjured in his mind next. "Stuck in America in enemy terrain with none other than my longtime object of interest—exciting!"

A light crimson shaded his cheeks at the comment, a furrow of the brow expressing embarrassment. "Herbivore...how many times must you voice your affections?"

"Till you say"—he deepened his voice to a mimicry of Hibari's—"'Tsunayoshi, I love you.'"

He tilted his head forth, allowing his bangs to veil the darkening of his blush. "Whatever happened to give you such impudence?"

That charming smile was back, brighter and several times more blinding than the rays of the sun. "I met a lovely Skylark with incomparable beauty and an I-stand-alone complex."

His eyebrow twitched. "_I'll bite you to death._"

After the process of gaining multiple bruises and perhaps a broken rib or two along with a possible concussion, their long walk proceeded; there were several incidents in which Tsuna tripped either over his own foot, a deep crack in the asphalt of the road, or an unseen pothole (Hibari had no idea how Tsuna couldn't see something as obvious as that) during their several-hours travel, but, aside from that and the unbearable heat beating on their heads bereft any shred of mercy, it was relatively peaceful (if one could claim being glared at as not nerve-wrecking). Yet, there were no signs of human civilization, and, with the sun setting behind the far and extensive horizon and the dusk suddenly dropping too many degrees of heat to be called normal, shelter was becoming crucial. Nevertheless, Hibari argued, "We can't stop here, especially when the enemy may now of our presence here." That's when Tsuna learned of Hibari's contradictory (and astonishingly gentle) nature: Taking his coat off to rest it upon Tsuna's shoulders, he ordered with a stern face, a slight frown Tsuna found to be too delicate befalling his brow, "Wait here and rest until I return."

Wrapping the jacket more securely around his shoulders, he protested, peering with a hardened stare into blue depths, "What? Where are you going?"

"There's a town at a two- to three-hours' running distance away; you can see it from here."

No, with a normal human's vision, one could not see it from here—Tsuna was more than certain of that; a thorough inspection of the horizon was the only needed evidence to prove that. _Kyouya never ceases to amaze me._ "I won't let you go alone."

Hibari pressed his palm over Tsuna's shoulder, effectively crumbling the latter's standing stance into a sitting one. "You'll only drag me down. _Stay here_."

There was no room left for opposition with that piercing glower, so Tsuna had no choice but to do as told and watch the retreating back of the skylark, Hibari's obsidian suit blending with the night and the silver of a lone tonfa glinting like the stars.

…

The shaking of Tsuna's shoulder was increasing, the rumbling of an engine drumming softly in his ears along with a barely comprehensible "Tsunayoshi, awaken already—I'll leave you behind if you don't." Years of living with a Spartan tutor caused his eyes to snap open and his body to automatically rise, hollering, "I'm up! Don't hit me!"

Hibari, expecting the outburst, had already pivoted on his heels and sauntered towards a scrap of metal pieces stuck together to form something resembling a car. The age of the vehicle creaked with a near-howl when Hibari clicked the door to the frontal passenger seat, the door of the driver's seat left open invitingly for Tsuna to take.

Still hovering between slumber and the real world, Tsuna complied with the silent task. The screeching of the door when he jammed it close snapped him out of his trance, however; he blinked, finding odd the inside of the car could easily be mistaken with the inside of Dino's red Ferrari. "Where did you procure this?" he asked slowly, not wanting to know the answer of his question.

Hibari yawned onto his hand, and Tsuna was made aware of the dark circles and rather pale complexion the skylark was exhibiting. "Just drive. No one will miss it."

Tsuna's eyebrow twitched. "Did you—?"

"No. By 'no one', I mean there is absolutely no population in the town ahead. I don't believe it's a town, either; probably a bomb-testing site." He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if to repel an incoming headache.

Satisfied his Cloud Guardian did not murder someone just to get a means of transportation, he pressed his foot down on the accelerator, making a U-turn towards the only direction they could go—away from the ocean—after setting the car back on neutral; he was surprised the car rolled as easily as a sailing boat on a calm, breezy sea.

Too calm for his liking in more ways than one.

He glanced from the corner of his eye at Hibari, noting the latter had closed off the world from his vision; the dryness of the usually softer than soft lips; and the once impeccable suit's state of disorder, patches of dirt staining the black and purple brown. "Did you run all the way there? That's insane, especially with this sweltering heat. You'll get dehydrated and collapse, you know." He had a mild suspicion the skylark had already fallen prey to those factors, though.

Hibari mumbled something, too low and incoherent for Tsuna to decipher.

"Sorry, I couldn't hear. What?"

"Water," he croaked, "in the back."

_I knew it…_"Mind taking hold of the wheel?" He shook his head, halting the acceleration of the car when Hibari's head lolled to the side. He sighed, scratching his cheek. "Ah, what am I going to do with you, Kyouya?" He chuckled as he reached behind his chair and grasped a plastic bottle. "Always collapsing every time we are alone." He twisted the lid off and tilted his head back while pressing the rim of the bottle to his lips, taking a few gulps before allowing water to fill his mouth. He leaned forth, cupping Hibari's cheek as his eyes drifted shut. _He'll kill me for treating him like an herbivore, but—_he pressed their lips together, Hibari's ajar ones giving enough of an aperture for the water to transfer, and waited till he heard the skylark gulp to separate rather reluctantly; a trail of water sliding down from the corner of Hibari's mouth, down his chin, and dropping to the collarbone peeking behind purple.

The ride continued uneventful till he came across an intersection of six roads at the center of the town. "Where to go"—he glanced at his left, leaning forth to achieve a better view of what lay beyond there—"oh, where to go." He hummed, the vibrations of the car transferring to his chest. "Should I trust my intuition for this?" He chuckled as he leaned back, pressing down on the accelerator. "I'll head straight, then." So, the travel went on, Tsuna heading only straight despite the many other choices presented before him as he went by; Hibari—rather weird, considering the skylark woke with the most minimal sound—stuck in the depths of the Dream; and stopping several times to provide water to Hibari by means of mouth-to-mouth, which Tsuna enjoyed till the very last second, the lustful-ly sinful section of his mind desiring for the skylark to collapse from dehydration every day; but, since he knew that was not possible, he sort of…_explored_ the wet cavern belonging to the other, conjuring sweet, little moans from the skylark's throat whenever their tongues brushed; the perverted section of his brain labeled as "The Daily Fantasies of _Boy-Love Version 2718_" delving in the bliss.

Eventually and finally (and rather sadly, if Tsuna may add), lids blinked open, deep raven lashes fluttering to laze away sleep from beclouding the dusking world, the current situation taking a few moments longer than usual to sink in. "This is…" His voice still retained rasp, but it had dwindle enough to Tsuna's relief to be barely noticeable. Hibari peered around the car, eyes squinting momentarily when a keen throbbing pounded against his skull. "Do you know our location?"

Curving the wheel to the right, Tsuna replied, "No, I haven't come across any towns yet." He sighed. "How do you feel? Better, I hope; although, you should keep resting—you pushed yourself too far earlier."

He chose to ignore the concerned query as he disregarded the pain jostling his limbs, he slid higher on his seat, dilated pupils watching the night pass by with the clarity of a feline. "Northeast: lights." Unconcerned by the fact no road paved the ground, he took the liberty of grasping the wheel, rotating it in the wanted direction.

A shriek nearly stumbled from his mouth when the vehicle hit a bulging object lazing on the sandy ground, forcing the car to leap a few feet into the air to fall with a creaking groan of disorientation, hands flailing from the shock. Almost immediately, he pressed his hands back down, one clasping over Hibari's hand to keep it from moving as he stepped on the breaks; a flurry of dust rose above them. "Are you sure those are city lights? They don't look very…city-like to me. Besides, we were heading northeast."

"I never said they were city lights." He gestured at the dots of illumination at the far distance. "Look closer."

Giving a tired sigh, Tsuna reached out to flicker the car's headlights off as he leaned forth, resting his chest on the wheel. Upon focusing his vision, movement of the lights had him frowning as a sense of danger settled in the pit of his gut when he briefly caught the sight of metal. His mind raced to decipher the strange events when he remembered why they were even in this predicament. "We must be close to where the plane must have crashed. They are probably searching for our bod—no"—his brows knitted closer—"they know we are not dead." He shook his head, fluffs of brown breezing along, lips curling down. "What did we get ourselves into…?"

"No use mulling over what's done." He gave a huff and crossed his arms over his chest. "Turn off the car."

Something else sparked an alert. "Wait…shouldn't it take longer for them to get a lead on us?" He pondered deeper. "Do they have Flame tracers? What should we do?" He turned to Hibari, blanching when, instead of his expectation of the other to conjure a scowl of thought, a smirk oozing nothing but bellicose lust graced itself casually on the skylark's visage. "Kyouya, _no_, don't even think ab—_Oi_! Kyouya! Stay in the—Agh! Curse it all!" He kicked at the door, diverting the innocent metal off its hinges, and gulped down the familiar pill.

Fire burst from the determination held in velvety orange eyes upon his forehead, with each step he took cracking his knuckles protected by stronger-than-steel gloves, the hemispherical version of the Vongola coat of arms' Sky reflecting the purple draped about the Clouds. Sighing, _This is going to be a long, bloody night of hell._


	10. Shiromitsu

Kusakabe paced about, hand on his chin, the previously omnipresent straw of grass hanging from the corners of his mouth now being stomped across. Kyou-san, the precious _bocchan_ and Head Prefect of the Disciplinary Committee, had left without a word over a year past. Imagine his horror, when, almost a week into the disappearance of the Skylark, he received a call from Sawada Tsunayoshi inquiring about Hibari's claustrophobia. "What happened? Is Kyou-san alright?" he had asked, yet he was only given the ambiguous answer of "Hibari-san is resting".

Oh, but that was not all.

Not long after he received the call from the brunet, an extremely alarming voice mail from Reborn (better known by most of the Committee as the Infant) was sent to his number:

"_Congratulations—your Royal Carnivore has married a Commoner._"

His brain had remained frozen for several days, four words echoing in his mind as he stared blankly at the ceiling in his room: _What in the fuck…?_ Mind, Kusakabe was not one to curse _at all_ even in the darkest depths of his soul.

The aforementioned state dwindle to a constant pacing around the many grounds making up the castle, always followed closely by all of the other prefects whom somehow discovered Hibari's social status, not that it should be surprising considering "_Congratulations—your Royal Carnivore has married a Commoner_" incessantly replayed throughout the strange silence drifting in the Hibari Household.

Of course, his brain's mental illness had not been cured. Therefore, a curse or two always managed to tumble from his mouth; and the nearest prefect reiterated the curse louder, causing the rest to curse as well; some even went as far to display their despair by kneeling on the ground with a backwards tilt of the head to shake their hands at the heavens as cascades rained from their broken hearts down their cheeks.

The Namimori townspeople had a suspicion a demon with a foul taste in words had revived from its sealed slumber from within the confines of the last, crumbling shrine at the far hills, complaining in a sorrowful rage how much of a "fucking hell" the underworld was.

Then, a flicker of hope aroused from its long sleep when the phone only Hibari had the number to rang, Nami Middle's anthem causing all prefects to halt their doings and conjugate before Kusakabe in the upmost level of the castle. They held their breaths, awaiting for the heavenly voice of the Chairman when, instead, another, somewhat familiar voice answered:

"_Kusabi Tezuya, correct?_" Laughter echoed in the background, followed by a "Shut up, Baseball Idiot". "_I meant Kusakabe Tetsuya_."

"…Yes."

Static rose along with some shuffling and shouts of protests till someone else began speaking, someone Kusakabe immediately identified as Reborn. "_Has Hibari contacted you in the past few days?_"

Whatever hope ignited dwindle to nothing. "Hasn't contacted in the past year, actually. Why?"

Reborn sighed, a sigh Kusakabe found to have sounded fatigued. "_Put me on speaker. _

"_Listen carefully. Three days ago, my idiotic student and Hibari left for their honeymoon_"—the prefects nearly fainted—"_to complete a mission. Upon landing, they were supposed to have informed us of their safety; they haven't. We suspect they were attacked during the flight_"—they all promptly died—"_for there is no notification of the plane ever arriving at the airport. We tried reaching their phones, but nothing comes in. Do you have any way to contact Hibari?_"

"Umm, we…that is—ah…"

"In the debit card Kyou-san carries around everywhere…we…kind of…placed a tracker that acts like a-a…ah, mini-cellphone…because of…because of…because we were worried for Kyou-san's safety?"

Kusakabe smacked a hand to his forehead, dragging the hand down. "I'll ignore this because it actually has a use to it for now." He shook his head, lids drifting closed. "Just make sure Kyou-san doesn't end up killing you."

An amused snort, the air already seeming to be lighter. "_Send the tracker's information to this number_."

…

Tsuna rubbed at his shoulder tenderly as he pried his unwilling lids open, groaning and cursing under his breath at Hibari's temerity. He blinked once, twice; his eyelashes seeming too heavy to bear. His vision slowly adjusted only to have black greet back_…Am I dead?_ He shook the thought away; there was no way he would still feel such sore pain. _Unless this is Hell_. He sighed, finally recalling the earlier events of "Discipline" flying about as it dragged its swirling chains of punishment; purple bodied spheres of spikes complimenting the tormented, running-away men; and his own flamed determination melting away most of the means of transportation.

He wondered how something like that could look so wickedly graceful. _No_, he corrected,_ it's not the battle; it's the strength Kyouya wields so facilely, especially his beauty that far exceeds that of a skyl _—the metal encasing him heaved a screech of protest and dragged the dust along with it in a failed attempt at keeping its embrace over Tsuna. He readied himself to attack when, suddenly, his breath disappeared halfway through the path to the outside world—Hibari Kyouya laced about the first rays of dawn, you see, was dangerous, for his heart nearly vaulted out of his chest and ran away without any sign of ever returning. He smacked his thigh to snap himself out of his trance, raising a curious eyebrow from the Heart Thief, and sat up, wincing at the stabs the motion gave at his ribs.

Hibari bent down to one knee and swept his thumb over a thin line of crimson liquid that still tricked down Tsuna's scribbled-with-random-patches-of-dirt cheek. He trailed his gaze lower and easily found a fresh spot of blood slowly increasing its area around a rip of clothing. "You're bleeding," informed he and pressed his palm against Tsuna's waist.

"O-ow, that hurts…Ugh, when did I get that?" he muttered, pretending to peer down at himself to instead inspect the Skylark for any wounds. He quickly found one, much to his dismay, right upon the collarbone. "Ah, Kyouya, you're bleeding, too." He grazed his fingers around the jagged edges of the gash, not missing the wince that narrowed Hibari's eyelids ever so slightly. "How did you get this?"

Hibari huffed and covered Tsuna's hand on his chest with his own. "An herbivore simply got lucky."

He scowled—a word spouted he did not believe. "Lucky? If someone got _lucky_ with _you_, it would be a mere scrape instead of a gaping hole some inches away from ending your life."

Aggravation ground his teeth together, a scowl of his own sending shivers down Tsuna's back. "It's not my fault an idiot decided to point his weapon at your back while you were fending off some other idiot" was what he wanted to retort, but he settled with a "whatever" instead—long sentences simply did not suit him. The answer Hibari was sure to arouse some form of anger, though, had the opposite effect: Tsuna blinked at him, mouth falling slightly agape, as if the brunet heard the act of protection the Skylark unconsciously snapped into doing with bereft hesitation.

Then, finally, the anger Hibari expected flamed a crimson shade in titian irises. Tsuna slumped forth to rest his forehead on Hibari's shoulder, hands clenching into tight fists around the tattered cloth of his black pants. _Those bastards behind this_, seethed he, _will pay dearly for hurting _my _Kyouya._

"Tsunayoshi?"

Tsuna brought his arms around Hibari, bringing the Skylark closer, and Hibari felt his cheeks flush when Tsuna whispered, "I love you, Kyouya."

"_Beep-beep-beep—_"

He growled, _I'm going to murder whomever dared interrupt our moment…_Giving an aperture between them, pretending he did not just promise to end an innocent life, "Hm? I think it's coming from your breast pocket."

Hibari groaned—Tsuna couldn't help the chuckle—as the embrace finalized. He fished into his pocket and brought out the only object occupying space in it: a debit card. He raised an eyebrow at the red, glowing light flickering at the center.

Tsuna replicated Hibari's confusion. "Is it supposed to do that?"

Flipping the card back and forth for inspection, "No."

"It sort of reminds of a tra—"

"_Hello? Can you hear me, Hibari-san?_"

"Shou-Shouichi?"

"_Tenth—!_"

"_What's up, Tsun—?_"

"_Ah, careful with that, _Onii_—_"

"_Extreme!_"

"_Kyou_-_san_—"

"_Chairman, we_—!"

"_Dame-Tsuna, what happened?_"

Hibari's brow twitched. _Too many people_.

Tsuna nearly cried tears of joy, relishing in the familiar voices in foreign land. "Re-Reborn"—he sniffed pitifully—"we were about to be attacked during the flight, and then we had to swim to shore because the plane was going to crash, and then we found this car that was later destroyed by these something-hundred dudes—"

"Tsunayoshi, that was you."

"—that somehow found out we survived the crash, and then…and then…I swear I am going to kill those bastards for laying their filthy paws on Kyouya!"

Commotion rumbled in the background till something akin to a gunshot declared silence. A sigh caused a breeze of static. "_How badly are both of you wounded?_"

"Manageable," responded Hibari before Tsuna could ramble about every last detail "those bastards" have inflicted.

"_I assume you have no luggage or place to reside at the moment. Irie._"

"_Y-yes, on it right now._" A pause. "_Okay, so, forty miles northwest of your location, there is a major city you can easily find a hotel in._"

"Thanks, Shouichi." He tugged at the tips of his long strands of brown. "Also, we lost our passports and the such; mind sending us a copy of them please?"

"_Sure_."

…

Hibari struggled with his words. When was the last time he was seen off in this manner? It almost seemed like they were those stereotypical, married couples in which Tsuna—the one seeing him off—would take the bride's role and he the husband-about-to-for-work; his suit and Tsuna's apron (Hibari had absolutely no idea where the brunet had procured that from…although, he was more surprised to find a klutz could even cook without burning down the entire building) made it more believable, more of a normal scene than two Mafiosi taking the first step into their first mission. He inaudibly sighed, and a pink plastered itself onto his features. "I'm…off."

Tsuna chuckled, glancing from the corner of his eye how their neighbors eyed them with…awe? He shrugged as he angled his head in the right position, eyelids fluttering close. _Might as well complete the picture_. He pecked the other's lips before drawing back with a satisfied smile when Hibari's blush darkened, a wonderful display of emotions compared to the stoic exterior—and Tsuna believed it went as deep as the heart—the Skylark previously wore. He purposefully dropped his tone to a husky one, whispering in a sensual drawl, "Stay Safe, Kyouya."

The neighbors shuffled away, blushing profusely to the tips of their ears.

Evening past, Tsuna had protested to go along, arguing the gaping hole defiling Hibari's impeccable, soft-skinned chest (Hibari had raised a curious brow at Tsuna's adjectives for his physique) had not healed well enough. Hibari countered, "You have a fractured rib, Herbivore." Tsuna's mouth had opened and closed, uselessly attempting to formulate a contradiction to a fact he could clearly feel stabbing pain in his side every motion he took. Thus, it was concluded—rather unilaterally, if one asked Tsuna—Hibari would take the initiative to gather information specifically on the accessibility of Cy-Tech to the public, perhaps even (forcefully) pry out from some workers from said company on how to achieve a position as a fellow coworker.

Tsuna should have expect the Skylark would land a hit not five minutes the latter strolled into the first bar spotted; nonetheless, the sheer amount of luck the Skylark had always astonished him whereas Vongola Decimo could support with evidence the bad luck that always taunted him like his schoolmates, both poking fun at his _dame_-ness.

Hibari, on the other hand, would say every chance good luck graced him bad luck was always lurking in the shadows. His current situation was proof.

The woman—Jasmine Protelli was her name, Hibari learned ten seconds into the mostly unilateral conversation—flipped her wavy hair behind her shoulder, the scent of her perfume overwhelming Hibari's sensitive nose, and purposefully fluttered her fake lashes as she "accidentally" brushed her shoulder against Hibari's, and the Skylark had to maintain his cool—the only sign of his displeasure being a slight twitch of the brow—while assuring himself he would definitely bite this woman to a painful death after. _"_So_"_—her voice was an annoying squeak, worse than those startled "hahi" of Miura Haru and those "gupya" from the Cow combined—_"_what's your name?_"_ She was seriously pulling at his straws of restraint when she rested her hand upon his thigh, moving it upwards every second.

Before it came any higher, he grasped her wrist and placed it on her lap as he sipped at his drink; water, mind you, for he was not one to hold his alcohol well in the very least. _"_Doth it matter?_"_ he countered, careful not to allow his aggravation lace about his tone.

Her lips painted in hot pink puckered into a pout, and she gave a playful slap to his knee; Hibari had to remind himself once more to not draw a spiked tonfa and shove it down her throat. _"_Oh, come on, don't be like that!_"_

Hibari pretended to sigh. _"_If I say, a position in Cy-Tech will thou tell how to obtain?_"_ Not exactly a question when his voice was an utter monotone.

_This guy is so…Shakespearean._ Internally shrugging, _Ah, well, he's still flamin' hot! _She gave an exaggerated roll of the eyes. _"_Geez, all everyone wants these days is to get a job in that company…I don't see what's so great about it._"_ She leaned forth on the counter and rested the side of her face on her palm, fluttering again her too-long eyelashes, and bit on her lower lip with a mischievous smile. _"_How 'bout instead you give me a kiss, and I'll tell ya everything you want_"_—she winked, dropping her voice to a failed attempt at achieving a seductive tone—_"_plus a little more._"_

His patience cracked: His lids narrowed over violet irises—contacts Tsunayoshi decided to purchase along with the hair spray that tainted even the darkest black a pristine white he currently wore despite his contradiction of "I'll look like that Marshmallow", which only earned him a laugh from the brunet—and allowed for the most minimal portion of his killing intent to flare past his control, petrifying instantly with fear the woman. _"_Ĉielo Alouet* is my name. Seal thy mouth from further blather before tempted I am to bite thee to death._"_ He pressed the cool surface of a tonfa to her waist, careful of not letting others notice the threat. _"_The information. _Now."_

Her eyes grew to impossible lengths. _"_G-go to forty-four Southwest Street tomorrow night. I heard the CEO of the company will be hosting a competition during the ball—a m-marathon, I think. The-the winners finishing in first, second, and third_"_—she gulped—_"_will be made the CEO's personal secre…taries._"_

…

_With a dull_ bang_ of metal against flesh, the man was forced to the ground; the hit was solid, sure to have crushed the cranium—the sickening crack was the only assertion he needed to know this from countless years of practice in the Art of the Bite. He pivoted on his heels, sweeping an arm out to shake off the splatters of crimson accumulated from the countless victims adding to the…_whatever _it was upon the ground (Hibari most certainly did not want to know what it was). He huffed. "What a bore."_

_Kusakabe stepped into view, peering at the gruesome chaos in search for anything else he may have missed_. All dead. _"Looks like he was the last one."_

_His eyelids drifted down to create a piercing glower of cerulean, knitting his brows. "Weren't they supposed to be tough?"_

_Mentally sighing,_ they were strong…just not strong enough for someone of Kyou-san's caliber_. He dipped his head, the straw in his mouth sagging along with his movements. "Please forgive me for my lack of investigation."_

I should have never come all the way out here._ He sighed, glare relenting to a glittering longing_. I wonder…what Tsunayoshi is doing just about now? _The image of Tsuna chuckling—the imaginary, omnipresent flowers Hibari had a mild suspicion were the cause of a certain Pineapple fluttering casually in the background whenever the brunet released such a melody—while scratching the back of his head came to mind, saying, "I've been so busy lately. Of course, not as much as you, though, Kyouya."_

Or…_He shook the next set of thoughts away when he felt a tightening _down there. _He turned towards Kusakabe, informing he would be returning to the Vongola Estate._

_Kusakabe bent to the waist, "Yes, leave the rest to—"_

_The last man to fall quivered in effort as he reached into his breast pocket and procured a metallic device. His eyes lowered in determination._ My chance…! _He pressed on the button at one end, and, immediately, a burst of flaming clouds reached out, engulfing and destroying everything in its path._

_Instinctively, in a matter of a split second, he lashed a tonfa out, sending the Vice Chairman flying to the farthest corner of the room. He raised his arms to provide a protection to his features as heat reduced most of his suit to ashes, the devils of hell traveling their lava tridents across his side to scorch his porcelain skin an ugly display of blistering blood. The flames gave a roar of victory and dissipated into veils of smoke when his weight suddenly became multiplied by exponentials of ten, causing his knees to buckle and his body to topple onto his burning side._

"Kyou-san_!"_

_Then, all was black._

…

_The breeze drifting through the open_ shoji _caressed his raven locks when he tilted his head back, staring at the clouds strolling about in the vast embrace of the sky; the sky gave a warming stare back, licking at his porcelain skin to sooth the light stabs that flared when he crossed his arms over his chest. "Tetsu, have you made preparations?"_

"_I had the others prepare first. I'll follow suit immediately." Kusakabe shuffled about in his kneeled position nervously. "Also, Kyou-san?"_

_A breeze swept in once more. "What?"_

"…_Sawada-san is waiting in the sitting room."_

_Not bothering for a word of farewell, Hibari strolled out of the room, towards the aforementioned location. Once he reached there, he slid the door to the side with a gentle tap. He blinked slowly at the state of dressing Vongola Decimo was currently in, the latter sitting patiently for his arrival upon a soft cushion. "Why are you dressed like so?" _The collar is backwards, _he noted grimly._

_Tsuna clutched at the soft fabric of his yukata, the manner in which the brunet had grown accustomed over the past decade to fidget. "Don't show your insecurity so openly—it's not befitting of a Mafia boss, Dame-Tsuna," Hibari remembered the Infant lecturing to Tsuna time and time again. "U-umm, I was wondering if you'd like to—"_

_Hibari's heart thumped with anticipation, feeling the familiar heat rise to tint his cheeks a light crimson._

_Fluffs of brown bounced slightly as Tsuna turned his head back to show off a glittering smile (or was that another of Mukuro's illusions?), a hand fisted before him in excitement. "—go to the night shops at the Firework Festival with me tonight?"_

"_Night shops…?" he echoed. The air above Hibari darkened, annoyance rolling off him in visible waves. "Night shops mean crowds of people." He mentally shuddered. "Not going."_

"_But there are lots of fun booths!" pursued Tsuna; "Like goldfish scooping—"_

"_Boring."_

"—_and yummy food!"_

"_I don't trust the sanitary state."_

_He pressed a curled finger to his chin, mind racing about to remember what else was offered in a festival. "What about…masks?" he attempted weakly just as Hibari swiveled away with disinterest. Noticing the Skylark leaving, he stood quickly and reached to catch the slightly more slender frame of Hibari. Wrapping his arms tightly around the other's waist, "You can't go!"_

_A burning flare paralyzed his movements, the only sign of his pained state being an imperceptible flinch—at least, he hoped it was hidden, but, considering nothing ever seemed to escape Tsunayoshi's perception, that was not the case when he turned to see the delicate frown peering at him. He gave a muffled sigh. "Tsunayoshi, I'm—"_

_Tsuna drooped to the floor and leaned to the side as he pulled down a sleeve, giving meaningful glances; a bead of nervous sweat sliding from his temple to his cheek—_my last resort!

"_What are you doing?" was what Hibari's expression seemed to query. _

"_What am I doing?" he verbalized. "Can't you tell, Kyouya?" He stared with a frowning intensity, so intense the air seemed to rumble. "I'm…trying to seduce you."_

_His body shook as he bit on his lip to keep at bay a chuckle threatening to rise. "You realize you are a horrible liar." _A clumsy, horrible liar, _his mind corrected._

"_Wha—it's not a lie!" Something seemed to snap in Tsuna as he rushed forth and pushed the Skylark to the floor, hands clasped around the latter's upper arms to keep from causing any possible harm. "As Vongola Decimo and your superior, I order you to stay, Kyouya." Hibari's impassiveness somewhat irked Tsuna. "Kyouya…" A deadly serious expression settled on his face. "_Please strip_." Not bothering for permission, he grasped Hibari's collar, startling the other._

_He struggled under the surprisingly strong grasp. "Tsunayoshi, _let go_," he growled, the narrowing of his lids telling of his aggravation._

"_Hold still, dammit." Tsuna jerked Hibari's hand on his away and in one fluid motion slipped the Skylark's suit coat and shirt open, revealing a chest wrapped in multiple bandages. He gave a heavy pant. "I knew it—you're injury hasn't healed yet." _

_Hibari looked away, annoyance clinging to him twisting his lips downwards._

_He chuckled darkly. "You know, when I heard you had been caught in an explosion, my heart almost stopped." In response, said organ gave a cold thump, freezing his veins when the possibility of his Skylark's life being tampered with the cruel fingers of Death aroused. He reflected Hibari's scowl. "I overheard the conversation you had with Kusakabe-san earlier; I'm not letting you go. Not in this condition._

"_Right now, you should still be in bed for another two weeks, and after that for another five weeks you should still be resting at the proper intervals; all of the time monitoring for an infection or a reopening of a wound that may occur."_

_Hibari sighed, shutting the world into black. "A little lick will heal—"_

"_Don't be ridiculous!" Tsuna tightened his grip around the clothes of black and white and tilted his head away from view, emotions constricting and clawing at his chest to the point of choking him with the breath of his lungs. "What you need right now is rest, not another battle."_

_A smirk graced his lips, the hues colouring his irises lustering a blue of the cold depths of the ocean—a challenge, Tsuna instantly picked up. "Then, make me stay."_

_Mimicking the smirk, "Challenge accepted." He inclined his torso, connecting their lips into a mind-fluttering kiss, and traveled his hand to untie his yukata; unveiling his toned torso and creating a curtain of light purple around the Skylark. His hand didn't stop there, though—with some facile flicks of the wrist, Hibari's pants were thrown to a corner of the room, forgotten already. Brows furrowing when he parted the kiss to peer down at what else Hibari was hiding, _All of his left leg is bandaged…_His heart gave a painful throb, but he still found his member hardening at the almost naked sight before him._

_Pink dusted across his cheeks. "What…are you doing…?"_

_He scooted lower while hooking his index fingers around the band of Hibari's black boxers. Titian orbs twinkled lustful mirth. "Doing the lickin_—

"What are you writing?"

Tsuna shrieked as he fumbled to shield the laptop's screen with his body. Stiffly, he turned around to face Hibari, a twitching smile settled on his features. "N-nothing. Just the reports for the past two weeks." He probed about his brain to switch the conversation when Hibari narrowed his lids at him in the usual tell-me-the-truth-or-I'll-bite-you-to-death manner. "Welcome home"—his lips lifted into a smile, already entirely forgetting about the document still on display behind him—"Kyouya."

Hibari sighed as he plopped onto the bed, the fluffy covers curling around his thighs to offer comfort. He tugged off his shirt, exposing a naked torso for the hungry-for-Kyouya's-skin eyes belonging to Tsuna to mentally drool over, and fell backwards, raven locks (the rain that suddenly decided to pour had washed away the white hair spray the second he liberated his eyes from those itching contacts) spreading like the night on the blankets. "I'm back," he mumbled.

"Did you find out anything?" he queried, rather distractedly, and gulped, heat cutting his strings of self-restraint ever so slowly, when he caught sight of boxers practically winking at him from under the tightness of light blue jeans.

"Cooper is returning from his business trip to China tomorrow. A ball will be hosted to congratulate him for his success in opening trade at the—Tsu-Tsunayoshi, what…are you doing…?"

He hooked his index fingers around the band of Hibari's last pieces of garments before tugging said clothing off. "Turning my fantasies into memories." He leaned down to steal a kiss.

Hibari chuckled—a sound much like the beauty of the orange, dusking sky embracing the fluttering clouds dyed in purple—his azure silver irises changing into a seemingly glowing blue as clear as the skies during the brightest noons; astounding the other into a great widening of the eyes that grew hazy with tears when the Skylark's lips curled at the corners into a small smile. "Forgiven you are, Tsunayoshi."

Tsuna had a wonderful fuck that night.


	11. La Fin: Recalling

**IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!**

**Plot Number One: **Titled "Rondo no Hen'Ai ~The Favouritism of the Rondo~", the story's setting is a land of different kingdoms—some seeking alliances and others seeking monopoly over all the land—where battles and deaths were as common as breathing. Then, one of the strongest kingdoms rose above the chaos and, with an army of seven knights and their king, ended all that lurked in the shadows, bringing sunshine about.

But peace had a heavy price:

King Sawada Tsunayoshi's strongest knight could no longer wield the sword. A wound had torn through the knight's shoulder, rending his right arm nearly useless.

The man had dissipated from the palace, hiding among the common folk as a blacksmith—the greatest and best blacksmith all kingdoms had ever come to know.

Trouble was rising once more, however, and Vongola's King needed to capture his ex-knight's knew-found strength before an opposing kingdom wiggled into the blacksmith's interest—and Tsuna is willing to go as far as to break the steel walls surrounding the winter-stricken heart with the warmth of the strange foreigner others called Love to keep the aloof Skylark tightly by his side.

(The story picks up after the time of peace comes about and 'the strongest knight' disappears.)

**Plot Number Two:** Titled "The Secluded Life of Hibari Kyouya". As suggested by the title, Hibari Kyouya, Head Prefect of Namimori Junior High School, is secluded from the impurities of the world by his subordinates as per request of the previous head of the Hibari household and their own selfish desires. But their plans of keeping the Skylark as innocent as possible are threatened by a twenty-something years old college student Sawada Tsunayoshi whom is slowly dragging Hibari into the dark and corrupted world of the Mafia as the former somehow manages to force his way into the ruthless heart of the latter.

(Possibly rated M for sexual content?)

**Plot Number Three:** A strange potion that robs one's years and transfers it to the first person one touches lands in the wrong hands—the hands that want nothing more than to utterly crush the last descendant of Sawada Ieyasu (or more commonly known as Giotto or Vongola Primo).

But the plan goes askew when, instead of Sawada Tsunayoshi drinking the potion, the Cloud Guardian accidentally consumes it, and six years from Hibari's life are absorbed by Tsuna by fault of a kiss that resulted from Tsuna's usual clumsiness. And, now, with several years added to Tsuna's already immense strength, they are left with no choice but to use cowardly tactics involving the ten-year-old Hibari. Alarmed for the Skylark's safety, Tsuna takes it upon himself to care for Hibari under his close watch, and Nana couldn't be happier to have a new addition to the already-overpopulated Sawada household.

(Title has yet to be decided on.)

**Plot Number Four**: Summary will be posted as this if this plot is made into a story: There was something entirely sinful in the manner the Skylark calls him "Master". Older!Tsuna x Genie!Hibari (in that order).

Sawada Tsunayoshi, a member of a secret, elite force of the military, goes to investigate an abandoned shop where rumors of witchcraft occurrences had ignited from, only to discover a teen dressed in nothing but strange, silken pants whom claims to have the power to grant Tsuna three wishes. Believing the teen (who wouldn't after watching the exhibitionist shrink into a bottle?), Tsuna questions what the other wants in return.

"Your last desire—wish for my freedom."

Throughout the relationship Tsuna and Hibari share, love blossoms, however, and Tsuna is reluctant to grant the Skylark's freedom in fear Hibari would leave his side.

(Title has yet to be decided.)

…

Okay, so just drop in the review box "one", "two", "three", or "four" for the plot you like best; it doesn't matter if the reviewer is anonymous—a vote is a vote.

By the way, these plots will be posted as a new story titled "Plot Bunnies", so, if you feel like cheating and having your vote counted twice, go ahead.

…

Okay, now, onto the last chapter:

Note: This takes place a few months after the honeymoon/Cooper-and-the-such incident. A little treat, I guess, for abruptly ending "There is No Such Thing as a Normal Sunday" (which is now part of "It Should Have Been a Normal Sunday" instead of leaving these two divided as sequel and prequel).

…Seriously, those titles are too long…

Also, I don't have much knowledge as to when school ends and begins in Japan (I know it begins in spring, though), so I am pretending schools are like in the U.S.: begins in August/September and ends May/June.

…

After attending the banquet hosted for the return of Ian Cooper, said man had taken a strange (read: perverted) interest in the two Vongola—calling off the completion that was to take place during the ball—leading into Cooper welcoming Hibari and Tsuna as his personal secretaries.

The Skylark and the Tuna had made certain their disguises were impeccable (Hibari still hated resembling the Marshmallow Herbivore). However, when Cooper decided it was the perfect chance to grope and caress the prefect where hands should not, Tsuna couldn't help the flare of ire that in turn burned the entire building into fine ashes.

Capturing Ian Cooper had been more facile than expected.

Within that same week, after the V-something (Hibari still could not recall the name of the men-in-capes) incarcerated everything and everyone related to Cooper, Tsuna and Hibari returned to Vongola Headquarters in Italy.

Reborn had smirked at Tsuna, a familiar glint in those deeply-obsidian eyes. "I should send you to every mission with Hibari henceforth." Therefore, after some mild, one-sided bickering from Gokudera, it was settled the Sky Guardian and his strongest would accompany one another to every mission. Surprisingly, Hibari had voiced no complaint.

"The nightly bondage needs to stop, though—I can hear Hibari's voice echoing down the hall (despite the softness of his moans), since you never bother to close your doors, Dame-Tsuna."

Hibari's face had coloured vermillion as Tsuna bristled possessively, embracing the former towards his chest and away from the Spartan tutor.

Tsuna ordered all rooms Hibari and he—_ahem_—spent their time together to be reconstructed with soundproof material, while Tsuna took the chance to host a grander wedding, somewhat ignoring the Skylark's reluctance _because I _re~ally_ want my dream wedding_, the wedding in which Gokudera had cried himself to unconsciousness—congratulating Tsuna, a threat (following after "if you make the Tenth unhappy") here and there directed at Hibari—Mukuro's saddened _kufufu_s resonated throughout the manner like a haunting ghost; the good-natured pats along with a laugh from Yamamoto were sure to leave a hand-shaped bruise upon the shorter brunet's shoulder; and the endless tears of the Disciplinary Committee could have very well welled a pool.

Deciding for their honeymoon they should travel across the world, staying in each country for the span of a week, Tsuna convinced Hibari to ride along with the excuse of 'spreading Vongola influence' (as Reborn tended to pester Tsuna with). Hibari had eyed him suspiciously when they landed in Greece instead of their supposable destination some few hundred miles away, demanding the reason behind switching the route of flight.

He offered his best smile, titian orbs twinkling in pure mirth dabbed with mischievousness. "Honouring the inception of our entwined times."

…

The mellifluous flowers of cherries constricted Hibari's breath with the mental remains of the disease those pink floras carried so innocently, the only thing impeding him from drowning was the steady grip Tsuna enveloped around their connected hands.

"Tsunayoshi…" he softly breathed—delving in the caress the name produced as it rolled off his tongue—calling attention.

Lashes fluttered, squinting momentarily at the light of sun, slowly revealing titian irises. He hummed, inquiring, despite having an inkling of where the conversation was heading.

The breeze drifted, blowing through the grass that grazed exposed skin while the hazy warmth of spring seeped beneath the layers of clothes, spreading heat. Tsuna stifled a yawn, feeling the lazy tugs of sleep that blurred his vision; he blinked, attempting to remain awake, and turned to stare at his lover's profile, absently counting the deeply obsidian eyelashes that were partially at fault for gracing the Skylark with feminine features.

Hibari dragged the silence, a delicate frown knitting his brows.

"…I suppose it began when I first heard the rumors of your strength while I was still in elementary. 'This Hibari Kyouya person must be really strong if he can subdue those delinquents,' I said to myself; 'I wish I was that strong so those bullies would leave me alone.'—the first sprout of admiration and a shred of jealousy.

"I began to gain more interest about you with all of those rumors going about, those rumors that contradicted at first but later came to an agreement: 'Hibari Kyouya was a vampire that used his drop-dead looks to lure others into allowing him to suck their blood—there was no other explanation why he threatens"—he drops his tone of voice to mimic Hibari's—"'I'll bite you to death'.' And, for a period of time, I believed it; in fact, I believed it so thoroughly I grew aghast every time you were mentioned." He chuckled at the memory, chiding the stupidity of his twelve-year-old self.

"Summer came and went, taking those rumors and burying them somewhere deep in my mind.

"And, then, I saw…" He sighed. "I never quite understood what having one's breath taken away by the sheer beauty of something felt like till I saw you standing by the gate: even from the few meters' distance I was at, your eyes seemed to pierce through space—isolating all else—the sky a pale contrast to that azure silver gaze of yours.

"I had this sudden desire to see you every moment I could—you were my only motivation to attend school—so I…purposefully came late to school every morning."

Hibari shot him a glower, and Tsuna cringed.

"Not long after, Reborn came…and saw right through me." He groaned. "The first time I was shot with the Deathperation bullet, I was supposed to confess to you but ended up asking out Kyoko-chan instead.

"He taunted me about you every chance he got, especially when you were near, and manipulated us—_me_ into shoving my way into your path." He smiled ruefully. "You know, most of the reason why I ever went to face Mukuro was because I heard you had gone to 'discipline' him…and never came back." He held back the need to strangle something—or someone—flexing his fingers to alleviate the urge. "'Nearly pounced on Dr. Shamal when Reborn told me about the Sakura-Kura," he grumbled.

"I later realized what I thought was a mere crush was love, an emotion as foreign to me as Dino-san is foreign to Japan. But…but it all worked out somehow.

"What about you, Kyouya? When did it start?"

Hibari took a gander at Tsuna from the corner of his eye briefly, cerulean mixing with titian, and that was all Tsuna needed to understand.

He exhaled a contented breath. "I see."

Somewhere along the way—in the fraction of a fuzzy memory of Sawada Tsunayoshi hovering over his body, the moonlight accenting its pale azure hues upon the Sky's porcelain complexion, and Hibari's heart having an inexplicable skip of beat—love had crumbled Hibari's frozen walls in the form of an X Burner's sudden flare.

_La Fin_


	12. Thank you!

Hehe. Did you know this story had absolutely no plot? It all merely began with a thought of "if Hibari was at an onsen and Tsuna-_tachi_ see Hibari's entirely-naked-ness". A really long drabble is what I like to refer to this as.

I bow in deep appreciation! Thank you so much for your kind support and for reviewing, favouriting, and following! I love you!

—YueRyuu


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